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THE QUESTION SETTLED. 



A CAREFUL COMPARISON 



OP 



BIBLICAL AND MODERN SPIRITUALISM. 



BY 



REV. MOSES HULL. 






" The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be ; and that which is done 
is that which shall be done : and there is no new thing under the sun." 

Eccles. i. 9. 




BOSTON : 
WILLIAM WHITE AND COMPANY, 

BANNER OF LIGHT OFFICE, 

158 Washington Street. 

NEW-YORK AGENTS — THE AMERICAN NEWS COMPANY, 

119 Nassau Street. 

1869. 






Y4 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by 

WILLIAM WHITE & CO., 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



William White & Co., Stereotypers and Printers. 



PREFACE. 



A WISE man has said, " To the making of many- 
books there is no end." This is literally true. 
Especially has spiritual literature increased so rapidly 
during the past few years, that it requires close atten- 
tion to keep track of the matter almost daily issuing 
from its press. Yet, in our six years' effort in behalf 
of the doctrines advocated in these pages, we have again 
and again observed a niche that we had hoped ere this 
to have seen filled. Speaking of this a few weeks since, 
a friend suggested that it was our duty to stand in this 
gap. As we could see no signs of others who wield 
more instructive pens occupying this field, we have un- 
dertaken so to do. How well we have succeeded is to 
be decided by our readers. 

When we contracted with our publishers, two months 
since, not a word of this volume was written : we, how- 
ever, at that time supposed we had the plan of the work 
arranged ; but our inspiration has stubbornly and per- 
sistently refused to follow our plan. The book has 
shaped itself, seemingly, almost without our aid. 



3 



4 PREFACE. 

When we took our pen, we seemed to see a huge 
chaotic mass of material to work into this book ; and, 
until it was half done, we hoped to weave it all in : but, 
like the widow's oil, it has greatly multiplied; and, 
now that our book is done, we see so much more that 
has been left out of its pages than has been admitted, 
that we more strongly than ever see the necessity of 
another volume. 

Should this volume meet the approbation of those for 
whom it was written, another may follow soon. This 
has been prepared amid the clash of spiritual arms. It 
has all been written and rewritten inside of eight weeks, 
while lecturing, preaching, debating, editing a journal, 
answering correspondents, &c. It has been written in 
the cars, in hotels, boarding-houses, depots, and sitting- 
rooms ; in fact under the varying circumstances attend- 
ant upon the life of an itinerant. 

Traveling as we have, we have had but little chance 
to examine libraries or consult books. Indeed, it was 
unnecessary, as our only aim has been to faithfully com- 
pare the Bible with modern phenomena and philosophy. 
If we have succeeded in this we are content. 

MOSES HULL. 
Hobart, Ind., May, 1869. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



THE ADAPTATION OF SPIRITUALISM TO THE WANTS OF HUMANITY. 

PAGE. 

No Argument so good as that of Adaptation — Religions must adapt them- 
selves to Men — Religions and Sciences have failed to demonstrate an 
After-Life — Two contradictory Chains of Thought in the Bible — Law 
forbidding Consultation with the Dead — Its Effect — Bible Writers in 
Doubt as to a Future — A Dialogue — Spiritualism convinces a Minister 
of his Immortality — Dying Minister in Despair — Why this Appetite 
for a Knowledge of a Future — Counterfeit Spiritualism an Evidence of 
a Genuine — Spiritualism not a Phantasm — Men love Spirit-Commu- 
nion — Illustration — Spirits retain their Regard for Mortals — Is it Im- 
agination — Where and What is the Land of the Dead — All interested 
in the Question — Sick Healed — Endless Progress — Theodore Parker 

— Abraham Lincoln — A Proof of the Truth of Spiritualism in its 
Beauty — Conclusion 11 

CHAPTER n. 

THE MORAL TENDENCY OF SPIRITUALISM. 

A Natural Query — Jesus regarded as a Blasphemer and a Devil — Every 
new System passes an Era of Calumny — Persecution purines — What 
Good has Spiritualism done — Opponents unfair — Immorality in the 
Churches — Religious Systems not responsible for Errors of their Ad- 
herents — None perfect — All are God-makers — Men worship their 
own Opinions — Short-comings of Bible Saints — Jewish Church — Tes- 
timony of Jeremiah— Of Jesus— Of Paul— Drunkenness and "Free- 
lovism"in the Early Church — Errors of Noah — Abraham — Isaac — 
Jacob — The twelve Patriarchs — Moses — Joshua — Samuel — David — 
Solomon —Jesus — Peter — Paul — Spiritualism a Reform School — 
Welcomes Sinners — Churches disfellowship Sinners — Illustrative Case 

— "Come and go with us" — Phenomenal Spiritualism — It appeals to 
our deepest social Feelings — The Theory of Spiritualism the best 
moral Governor — Its Philosophy — A Contrast — Orthodoxy and 
Heathenism — Eternal Punishment for Sin — Familiar Story — Is it 

5 



CONTENTS. 

Just — Living and Dying in Heaven — No Barriers to Sin — No moral 
Change at Death — Illustration — We are Authors of our Destinies — 
Conclusion 30 

CHAPTER m. 

BIBLE DOCTRINE OF ANGEL MINISTRY. 

Common Doctrine — Angels are Spirits — Terms " Man " and " Angel n 

— Angel Men visit Abraham, Lot, Joshua — The Host of the Lord — An 
Angel appears to Gideon ; to Manoah's wife ; is introduced to Manoah 

— Writing on the Wall — Daniel a Superior Medium — Gabriel both a 
Man and Angel — The Stone rolled from the Sepulchre by a Man — Cor- 
nelius's Visitant — Peter a Trance-Medium — A Spirit talks to him — 
Peter's Explanation — The Book of Revelation a Series of Spirit-Com- 
munications — John sees his Brother — An Angel — God's Family — 
Bible replete with History of Angelic Ministration — No Bible-Writer 
has tried to prove it — All the Angels are Ministering Spirits — Number 
of Angels — Bible Saints trusted too much to the Angels — Abraham's 
Confidence — Angels select Isaac's Wife — "Murder will out" — Moses 
and the Angel — Angels deliver Israel — A Whole Nation of Mediums 

— Conditions must be obeyed — Joshua developed as a Medium — 
Joshua and the Angel — A Circle — Jericho taken — The Modus Ope- 
randi — Camels swallowed and Gnats rejected — Angel Ministry vs. 
Miracle — The Hebrews and the Fire — Nebuchadnezzar sees an Angel 

— Jugglers play with Fire — Chemicals prevent the Penetration of Heat 

— Letter from Rev. J. M. Peebles — The Explanation — The Result, an 
Increase of Faith — Master Frank Goodman — Mr. D. D. Home and the 
Fire Tests — Daniel and the Lions — Prayers answered by Angels — 
Jesus' Prayers — Daniel's Prayer — Angel's Effort to answer — Another 
finally assists and succeeds — The Emancipation Proclamation — An 
Ancient Prayer-Meeting — Peter let out of Prison — Peter at the Door 

— Only Spirit-Raps — Modern Mediums released from Prison — Author 
does not believe — Admonition . . 48 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE THREE PILLARS OF SPIRITUALISM. 

Spiritual Platform — Three Propositions — Man has a Spiritual Nature — 
Spirit not immaterial — Spiritual Man — Source of Evidence — Biblical 
Testimony — Elihu — Zephaniah — Papal Decree — Hard Questions — 
Cannot answer all — Spiritual Senses — Blind and Deaf Man — Illus- 
tration — Man Double — Two Fathers — Two Sources of Knowledge — 
Peter awakened — Two Contradictory Histories of Jesus — Both true 

— Jesus did not always believe his own Prophecies — Somnambulism 
an Important Witness — Author's Case — A Lady and the Fine Arts — 
Dr. Slade and Spirit Pictures — The Modus Operandi — Psychometry 

— Discourses read from the Hand, the Walls of the House, &c. — 
Paul's Case — Outward and Inward Man — One perishes, the other 
endures — Modern Facts — Apparitions of the Living — Mrs. Hauffe 



CONTENTS. 7 

■—Lady in Albany — Apparition at St. Louis— Hiram Dayton badly 
mixed — His Father appears — Case in New Orleans — Drowning Per- 
sons — Spirit continues after the Death of the Body — Spirit a Con- 
scious Entity — Spirits in Prison — Gospel preached to the Dead — 
Spirits return — Modern Spiritualism a Repetition of that of the Bible 

— Samuel and Saul — No Devil or Witch in the Case — Josephus's Tes- 
timony — Character of the Woman — Moses and Elias — " Only a Vis- 
ion" — Various Phases of Manifestation — Child Medium — Written 
Communication from Elijah the Prophet — Belshazzar's Palace Wall — 
Elias must come — John the Baptist a Medium — This was Elias — 
"He hath a Devil" — Ezekiel's Mediumship — Saul a Medium — An 
Evil Spirit visits him — Modern Evidences — Dr. Johnson's Testimony 

— Vision of a French Marquis — Prediction fulfilled — Testimony Con- 
clusive 77 

CHAPTER V. 

THE BIRTH OF THE SPIRIT. 

All Subjects Important — " Ye must be born again" — Nicodemus' Quan- 
dary — A Minister's Opinion — Author's Objection — Jesus' Tests — 
Must be born out of Flesh — Birth of the Spirit a Resurrection — Not 
of Flesh and Blood — Bible against it (1 Cor. xv.) — Natural and Spirit- 
ual Body — Opinion of the Woman of Tekoah — Of Job — Of Jesus — 
Objections answered — Mortal Bodies quickened — Must eat Christ's 
Flesh — Job and the Worms — Job refers to his Recovery — He did see 
G-od — Scientific Arguments — Change of Matter — Interesting Dialogue 
— Is the Mind an Entity — Abraham in the Resurrection — Dust return- 
ing to Dust — Resurrection a Birth — Jesus born of the Spirit — Seen by 
Clairvoyants — He goes and comes like the Wind — His Flesh and Bones 

— Owasso, the Boots and the Hand — His Explanation — Jesus appears 
to Paul — Others do not see him — Test from Ananias — Jesus, in show- 
ing himself, demonstrated Immortality — Practical Conclusions — Born 
into the Other World of this — Future Happiness and Misery made by 
Life here — Alexander Campbell — The Good shall shine — Spirits and 
Tobacco — Appetites may be our Hell hereafter — Admonition . . 113 

CHAPTER VI. 

ARE WE INFIDELS? 

Rapid Growth of Spiritualism — The " Mad-Dog" Cry — Charge ignored — 
Proceeds from Infidel Hearts — Truths and Errors in the Bible — Dia- 
logue; Minister wants a Bible — All believe Parts, and no one believes 
All, of the Bible — Illustrative Cases — How shall we decide who the 
Believers are — The true Test — Works — The Commission — End of 
the World not yet — Jewish and Christian Age — Preaching, Baptism, 
and Signs go together — Is Christ in the Church — Signs follow; did 
Jesus tell the Truth — The Day of Pentecost — Holy Ghost, Definition 
of — Opinion of Opposers — Peter's Explanation — " What shall we 
do" — This Power for all — Abrahamic Promise — Holy Ghost for all — 
Gifts not to cease — Churches acknowledge some of the Gifts — Covet 



o CONTENTS. 

the Best Q-ifts — When will the Gifts cease — Advice of James — Eli- 
jah's Prayer and the Rain; two Positions — Mind will control Matter 

— All Things nnderMan — A Lightning-Tamer — Philosophy of Rain 

— Rain on Battle-Fields, &c. — Yankee Climate-Regulators — Sick Lady 

— A Dialogue — God. not changed by Prayer — Effect of Prayer — Sick- 
ness the Result of Sin — Prayer and its Equivalent — Philosophy of 
Disease and Cure — Impressions Mental and Physical — Philosophy of 
vomiting — Disease created and removed by Impressions on the Mind 

— Death from Excitement — Whence the Power of Volition — Spirit- 
Writing — Cause of Paralysis — Positive and Negative Disease — Phi- 
losophy of Controlling a Patient — Electric Currents pass from the 
Nerves of one to another — The Spirit- Wo rid supplies the Operator 

— Author's Experience in healing — Cause of Failures — Jesus some- 
times failed — His Disciples do — Author has been healed — Blind see, 
Deaf hear, &c. — Statement of Abraham Clarke — Letter to " The New- 
York Dispatch" — Peter Manning's Case — Another Dialogue — The 
Devil did it — Devil not so good, after all — Another Evidence — Jesus' 
Logic — Was his Mission divine — Coming of Christ — Symbolic Clouds 
and Horses — Death has lost its Sting — Challenge — World's Conven- 
tion ... 144 

CHAPTER VH. 

ARE WE DELUDED? 

A Common Cry — Contradictory Positions — Order of Batteries — They fire 
into each other — " Kettle Story " — Result of the Warfare — Dialogue — 
God and Mediums deceiving the World — Are God and the Devil Part- 
ners — Is it just to damn the World for Unbelief — Author loves God 
more than Bibles — Lying Spirits sent out — Did God do it — Case of 
Jeremiah and Ezekiel — Ezekiel's Explanation — Spiritualism a Delu- 
sion — The Lord coming — Reasoning in a circle — Wonderful Success 
of the Opposition (? ) — Spiritualism will not "down" — "Old Split- 
foot" — Toe-joint Theory — Hidden Meaning in appointing these Com- 
mittees — The Machinery Argument — Arguments of Opposers suicidal 
to themselves — Human Testimony rejected — Conditions required — 
Conditions of Sleep — Conversation with a Photographist — Conditions 
of Photography — Telegraphy — Arguments against Spiritualism would 
overthrow the Bible — An Infidel Deacon denies his Bible — A Giant 
Delusion — Spiritualism Twenty-two Years ago and now — A Prospec- 
tive View — Spiritualism Positive and Aggressive — Reasons for going 
to Church — Churches not Proselyting — Why do Persons become Spir- 
itualists — Rev. A. J. Frishbach's Reply — Suffering for Spiritualism — 
Ministers' Wives in the Lunatic Asylum for Spiritualism — Author's 
Experience — The Quality of Converts to Spiritualism — Our Evidence 
not in the Number or Intelligence of Converts — Giant Minds yield — 
Atheism and Materialism give place — Hon. N. P. Talmadge and J. W. 
Edmonds — "The Kings of the Earth "— Opposers fall before the 
Power — Gamaliel's Opinion — A charming Delusion — Efforts to con- 
vert a Spiritualist — Death-bed Scene — " Oh, happy Delusion ! " — It is 
not a Delusion — Child Medium. 186 



CONTENTS. 9 

CHAPTER Vm. 

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 

Objections usually the Result of Ignorance — A British Lord and the Steam- 
boat — Objections to the Telegraph — Objections to Abolitionism — G-od 
legislated against Spiritualism — Necromancy; Definition of — The Ob- 
jection proves Spiritualism — Hebrews inclined to apply to the Dead 
for Knowledge — Law indorsed Spiritualism — This Law abolished — 
Other Precepts of this Law not binding — Jesus violated this Law — 
Paul and John violated, and hence deserve Death — The Law good in 
its Place, and for its Time — Men inclined to worship Spirits which 
communicated — The Jewish Jehovah not an Infinite God — He incited 
the Jews to Crime — Jehovah jealous of other Spirits — Grod goes to 
Babel to find out concerning a Report — Moses a better Man than his 
God— Heathen Gods once Men upon Earth — Spirits should be Helps, 
not Masters — Jews worshiped Spirits; Abraham, Lot, Joshua, Peter, 
John — Law against Spiritualism had evil Results — Materialism the 
Results of that Law — Elihu a Clairvoyant Medium — Men not Clay — 
"Old Paths" — Contradictory Objections — Consistency a rare Jewel 

— All Things were once new — Protestantism once new — Catholic Ar- 
gument against Protestantism — All Religions have run the same Gant- 
let — "Fanatical Methodists" — Novelty not against Truth — Men in 
this World are learning; may not others progress — Spiritualism not 
new — Martin Luther and the Spirits — Wesley and the Spirits — They 
are Devils — An old Charge — John the Baptist and Jesus had a Devil 

— Every Reform was instigated by the Devil — Devil left the Church — 
Devil is Synonymous with Hatred of Progress — The Telescope, Fan- 
ning-Mill, Priming-Press, and Vaccination, all of the Devil — Devil dis- 
covered the Circulation of the Blood — Devil and Michael Servetus — 
Martyrdom of Servetus — The Devil and Vaccination — The Devil figur- 
ing as an Abolitionist, Geologist, &c. — Has God sent a Scorpion for a 
Fish — What a God — The Existence of a Devil can not be reconciled 
with that of a good God — The Devil always proves himself right — 
Author of Progress — Devil a Myth — Conclusion 214 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE ADAPTATION OF SPIRITUALISM TO THE WANTS OF 
HUMANITY. 

No Argument so good els that of Adaptation — Religions must adapt them- 
selves to Men — Religions and Sciences have failed to demonstrate an After- 
Life — Two contradictory Chains of Thought in the Bible — Law forbidding 
Consultation with the Dead — Its Effect — Bible Writers in Doubt as to a Fu- 
ture — A Dialogue — Spiritualism convinces a Minister of his Immortality — 
Dying Minister in Despair — Why this Appetite for a Knowledge of a Future 
— Counterfeit Spiritualism an Evidence of a Genuine — Spiritualism not a 
Phantasm — Men love Spirit-Communion — Illustration — Spirits retain their 
Regard for Mortals — Is it Imagination — Where and What is the Land of 
the Dead — All interested in the Question — Sick Healed — Endless Prog- 
ress — Theodore Parker — Abraham Lincoln — A Proof of the Truth of 
Spiritualism in its Beauty — Conclusion. 

THERE is no argument so strong in favor of any 
hypothesis as that which shows unmistakably the 
adaptation of the theory to the work intended. A re- 
ligious theory proving itself adapted to meet all the wants 
of the human soul comes with God's warrant in its hands. 
Having such credentials from the Almighty, but little 
else is needed to prove it true. As man is the highest 
type of the creation, yea, " the offspring of God " (see 
Acts xvii. 28), religions and theories must bend to 
man : he can not bend to them. They must come to 
him as he is, in a state of nature, and adapt them- 

11 



12 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

selves to his wants. The first inquiry which suggests 
itself is, What are the wants of the human soul ? All 
answer, The first great want of the soul is an evidence 
of its own continued existence. 

With all deference to other systems of religion and 
philosophy. Spiritualism is the only system which can 
make man know of his own immortality. Is man im- 
mortal? is a question which is now being propounded 
with more earnestness than ever before. How can the 
question be answered? If Science be consulted, she 
stands with drooping wings, looking down into the dark 
grave, and answers, " The knowledge is not with me. 
I am educated only in the past : I trace man from the 
primordial fires, through the granite rock, on through 
the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms, to the 
grave : but I can see no farther." Science can not tell 
the strength of the disease now preying upon my body, 
nor yet the power of endurance my physical system 
may have ; much less can it dive into the dark future, 
and grapple from its unwritten pages evidences of man's 
future condition. Poor blind Science ! don't ask it to 
solve questions so entirely out of its reach. True, we 
may reason from the great law of design manifest every- 
where, and from our reasonings draw the hope that this 
mundane existence will not wind up the course of man ; 
but at best it is only hope. The soul demands evidence 
of its immortality. Where shall it be found ? 

If we recur to the Bible, we find two distinct and 
contradictory classes of ideas upon this subject running 
through that book. One chain of ideas comes from cer- 
tain phenomena which were witnessed among the peo- 
ple ; such as Samuel returning and holding a tete-a-tete 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 13 

with King Saul, Moses and Elias talking with Jesus on 
the mount, John's brother talking with him on the 
Island of Patmos, &c. See 1 Sam. xxviii. 14-20 ; 
Matt. xvii. 1-8 ; Rev. xxii. 8. 

Though these facts are said to have occurred, they 
were in the most open violation of one of the strictest 
laws of the Jews, which reads as follows : — 

" There shall not be found among you any one that 
maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, 
or that useth divination, or a witch, or a charmer, or 
a eonsulter of familiar spirits^ or a wizard, or a necro- 
mancer." — Deut. xviii. 10, 11. 

Here is a law forbidding spirit-communion. It takes 
more courage than most people possess to enable them 
to violate such plain laws, with death as their penalty. 
The result, as might have been expected, was, that 
cases of spirit-communion were rare. Death they had 
before them constantly ; graves they saw every day : 
but those who had passed on they did not see, did not 
dare to see them. The result was, many of them con- 
cluded they had no existence. Jacob, when he sup- 
posed his son Joseph to be dead, said, u Joseph is not " 
(Gen. xlii. 36). Rachel, being forbidden to consult her 
children, naturally enough concluded they were not 
(Jer. xxxi. 15). Isaiah says of the dead, " They are 
extinct; they are quenched as tow" (Is. xliii. 17). 
The writers of the Bible not only supposed, as a result 
of their being shut away from communication with the 
dead, that they had no existence, but they believed 
death to be a state of eternal nonentity. It was not 
Porphyry, Celsus, or " Julian the apostate," but Job, 
who said, " So he that goeth down to the grave shall 



14 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

come up no more" (Job vii. 9). David, the " man 
after God's own heart," did not leave it for Lord Boling- 
broke or Pope to compose the poem which says, u Put 
not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in 
whom there is no help ; for his breath goeth forth, he 
returneth to his earth : in that very day his thoughts 
perish" (Ps. cxlvi. 1-3). It was thirty centuries be- 
fore the birth of the author of " The Age of Reason," 
that Solomon, the w T ise Jewish king, gave utterance to 
the following sentiment : — 

" The living know that they shall die ; but the dead 
know not any thing." — Eccl. ix. 5. 

Not satisfied with uttering the atheistic sentiment of 
the unconsciousness of the dead, he proceeds to lock 
the doors of a future against them. Hear him : — 

" Neither have they any more a reward ; for the memory 
of them is forgotten. Also their love and their hatred 
is now perished ; neither have they any more a portion 
forever in any thing that is done under the sun." — 
Eccl. ix. 5, 6. 

All the above-mentioned passages express the most 
absolute infidelity concerning the future of man. These 
opinions can but be regarded as the legitimate result of 
the embargo put upon appealing to the dead for knowl- 
edge. Remove that restriction, let the Jew have the 
privilege which the heathen enjoyed, of consulting 
the dead, and how long could his infidelity have re- 
mained ? Not long enough for Job to have said, — 

" The grave is my house : I have made my bed in 
darkness. I have said to corruption, Thou art my 
father ; to the worm, Thou art my mother and my 
sister. And where is now my hope ? As for my hope, 



' 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 15 

who shall see it ? They shall go down to the bars of 
the pit when our rest together is in the dust." — 
Job xvii. 13-16. 

If the Bible writers themselves, for whom a plenary 
inspiration is claimed, who, it is supposed, enjoyed all 
the evidences of immortality, were so unbelieving con- 
cerning the future, is it any wonder that the world to- 
day has so nearly run into atheism on that subject ? If 
the position assumed be correct, that the elements of 
the infidelity of the Jews had an origin in their non- 
intercourse with the dead ; that, in proportion as that 
people transcended their legal rights, and held occasional 
converse with visitants from the other side, their unbe- 
lief was supplanted by knowledge, — then we may safely 
affirm, that, without Spiritualism, there is no positive 
evidence of a future life. 

When traveling on a certain occasion through Can- 
ada, the writer was introduced to a Baptist minister. 
As the prefix " Reverend" was used in his introduction, 
the gentleman of course supposed him to be an evangel- 
ical minister. Being curious to know whether this 
minister could find any evidence of another world, 
independent of Spiritualism, he commenced a conver- 
sation which resulted in the following dialogue : — 

Hull. — How is the cause of religion in Canada ? 

Minister. — All is well. We had glorious revi- 
vals through these parts last winter. Of course, matters 
have cooled down somewhat ; yet, with many, the work 
seems to be deep and lasting. How, may I ask, is the 
good cause in Michigan ? 

H. — We are having trouble there. There are a 
great many thinkers in that State, and among them a 



16 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

large proportion of materialists who deny immortality ; 
and we find them hard to meet. 

M. — Ah ! I see no trouble in meeting them, espe- 
cially if they believe the Bible. Why don't you tell 
them that Samuel returned to talk with Saul ? This 
he never could have done had not he been immortal. 

H. — True enough. That could be used, for aught I 
know, in Canada ; but it does not do to use it in Michi- 
gan. There are in that State about twenty-five thou- 
sand Spiritualists ; and, were you to quote that text, 
every one of them would claim you as being on their 
side of the question ; for, if the text proves any thing, 
it proves Samuel was immortal by the fact of his having 
returned and communicated. We do not wish, when 
battling with atheists and materialists, to put a club 
into the hands of the Spiritualists with which to beat 
our brains out when we undertake to deny Spiritualism. 

M. — True ; but could you not tell them of the 
appearance of Moses and Elias on the Mount of Trans- 
figuration ? 

H. — Yes ; but that, too, if it proves any thing, 
proves the continued life of the parties by their 
returning. 

M. — Yes, yes ; but should we reject a truth 
because the Spiritualists believe it ? 

H. — Certainly not. But is there no way to prove 
immortality, without resorting to texts, which, if they 
prove any thing, prove Spiritualism ? 

M. — The fact is, my belief in immortality does 
not hang upon biblical expressions. I know man is 
immortal. 

H. — You are the man I want to see. Tell me 
how you know it. 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 17 

M. — Last Saturday I was called to the bedside of 
a dying sister : while we were watching for the last 
breath, she suddenly brightened up, and said, " See 
there ! do you see? " — " See what ? " I said. " There 
is my sister, and one who I guess is Jesus : they have 
come for me." Saying this, she expired. Now I can 
not think this all deception. God is too good to let one 
who had trusted him all the days of her life die so 
deceived. 

H. — So I think ; but that is Spiritualism. And 
now let me confess that I am a Spiritualist. I have 
talked thus with you to see if you had any evidence of 
immortality which would not prove Spiritualism. 

M. — I do not see that we are bound to reject a 
truth because Spiritualists believe it. 

This last sentence, though true, does not present the 
matter fairly. Every system of religion in the land 
lives and is sustained by its spiritual element. The 
question was not, " Shall I reject the evidence of im- 
mortality presented to my dying sister ? " but, "Is there 
any evidence, except that which comes in such a way, 
that, if it proves any thing, it proves Spiritualism? " 

The world demands to-day, above all things, the 
evidence of immortality. All demand it. As the 
mother takes the last look at the cold, dead body of 
her son, and imprints a kiss on his colorless cheek, she 
involuntarily exclaims, u Shall I see my child again?" 
Then let the minister point her to some biblical decla- 
ration, and her very soul will revolt at it ; and she will 
inwardly, if not outwardly, exclaim, " Such authorita- 
tive ipse dixits may do under ordinary circumstances ; 
but they fail to reach a mother's heart in an extremity 

2 



18 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

like this." What will convince that mother? " Is 
there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician 
there ? " She naturally feels, " If my son lives, why 
does he not take this burden from my heart ? Has he 
lost all interest in me ? Oh for one breeze from the 
summer-land (if there be such a country), just one 
rap, one test, one evidence, that my son still lives and 
thinks ! " 

Now the Spiritualist believes that that boy can come 
back and communicate with his mother ; that he can 
say, " Mother, I am alive ! " Reader, don't you wish 
it was true ? Wouldn't you make it true if you had 
the making of the truth ? If these questions were 
asked of the great body of humanity, would one single 
voice be found to say, u No " ? 

Once upon a time, we were invited to the bedside of 
a dying minister, whom we had long known to be a 
good man and a consistent Christian, if there ever was 
one : to say the least, his daily life was a better epistle 
than Paul ever wrote. The minister was taken suddenly 
with hemorrhage of the lungs, and drew rapidly near 
the gates of physical dissolution. Looking up to us, 
he faltered out, " Brother Hull, do you believe in the 
resurrection of the dead?" 

u Why," said we, " you have heard us preach on that 
question many times : did you think we would preach 
what we did not believe?" He responded, "I was 
taught to believe it ; but I know now, for the first time, 
that I never did. I received it from my teachers and my 
Bible without investigating. I am now dying ; and I 
frankly acknowledge that I do not believe this body 
can again be gathered. I can not see that there is a 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 19 

future for man." After reasoning with the man 
nearly an hour, we ventured to ask, " Are you now 
satisfied ? " He responded, "lam dying now : I can 
not talk. My request is for you to preach my funeral- 
discourse ; and don't let one who hears it, die, as I am 
dying now, without any hope of a beyond." 

Under the influence of this scene, we could but 
exclaim, " If there is not another world, what a pity 
there is not ! and, if there is, what a pity that God 
did not give us a better knowledge of it ! " Without 
Spiritualism there is no evidence of another world. 

Now we would inquire, Is this appetite for a beyond 
the only one God has left ungratified? or, having 
granted us this boon, has he left us without any possi- 
bility of knowing that there is life when the earthly 
life has ceased, until by experience we know of the 
better country ? It can not be that God, who has done 
all in his power for man, has left us thus to grope in 
darkness. No : when every other source of evidence 
has been set aside as unsatisfactory, Spiritualism comes 
to our relief; thus proving itself, in this respect at 
least, adapted to the needs of humanity. 

Evidences of another life, given through Spiritualism, 
are many of them of such a character, that those who 
have witnessed them find no room for doubts. That 
there are cases of deception, that there are lying 
mountebanks who wear the fair garments of Spiritual- 
ism as a cloak for their iniquity, does not affect the 
genuine manifestations more than a genuine bank-bill 
would be affected by counterfeits issued on its credit. 
Nay, do not counterfeits prove the existence of a true 
coin, which is worthy of counterfeiting? Men do 



20 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

not counterfeit copper coin : it is too cheap. How 
strangely beside themselves men get when they con- 
clude there is no genuine Spiritualism because they have 
found a counterfeit ! Profound logic that ! When 
such men as Robert Owen, Robert Hare, Robert Dale 
Owen, and hundreds of others whom we might mention, 
who have all their lives, up to the time of their com- 
munion with the departed, doubted whether there was 
another life, are, through Spiritualism, so perfectly con- 
vinced of it, that no room is left for a doubt, and they 
are ever after not* only believers, but open advocates 
of immortality, we are led to ask, Is any other argu- 
ment needed to show that Spiritualism is perfectly 
adapted to meet that earnest longing of the human 
heart for a knowledge of endless life ? 

Now, we ask, Is not immortality a natural want ? 
and, if man is immortal, is not the evidence of the 
fact a want natural to him? Spiritualism is found 
equal to the task of supplying that need. Has it not 
in this proved itself adapted to the wants of man ? 
No other religion has done so much. 

Is it objected that the evidence is not real ? that only 
the gullible are deceived by it? Admit it, and what 
is the result ? Man is a poor worm, either without im- 
mortality, or, if immortal, without any evidence of the 
fact. All hope pertaining to the future is idle. All 
our prospects are blasted. Religion is a solemn farce, 
and man of all creatures the most miserable, placed 
on the earth, given a taste of life, made to enjoy im- 
mortality, and yet his highest joys and brightest 
anticipations all imagination. And is it so ? Has not 
the Giver of all good been able to make the reality as 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 21 

glorious as man, without any image before him, could 
paint the ideal ? Tell us that day does not follow 
night, that water does not quench thirst, that it is only 
fanatics who imagine that the sun shines, that this life 
is a miserable phantasm ; but do not tell us that the 
seeds of happiness sown in the human soul by this 
beautiful belief will never grow. 

Even admitting that man could know of another 
world without Spiritualism, yet who would not hold 
sweet communion with those on the other side ? We 
are all social beings. We love social converse ; nor is 
that love confined to the living. The true wife does 
not cease to love her husband as soon as he passes from 
her sight : that husband, whose voice was once sweet 
to her, and whose friendly counsel was her greatest 
solace, still lives. Is it not natural that the wife should 
long for communion with the one whose life was 
almost a part of her being ? 

To illustrate : a mother had two sons, James and 
John, whom she loved as her own life ; but when 
traitors fired into our flag, and trampled it under foot, 
she gave them up to defend their country. In the 
course of the battle, James was killed ; but John, after 
passing through severe engagements, returns home a 
triumphant conqueror. How the loving mother hails 
her son ! With what eagerness does she grasp his 
hardened hand ! With what outgushino; f soul does 
she imprint her kisses upon his sun-browned cheek ! 
How proudly she watches his every move ! With 
what heartfelt joy does she welcome him to the place 
at the table made vacant by his absence ! And as he 
relates his experiences on the battle-fields, in forced 



22 THE QUESTION SETTLED 

marches, in prison-pens, how her very soul drinks his 
every word ! Now, who can think that she forgets 
James, who, fired with the same patriotism, went, but 
never returned? How would her soul rejoice, could 
James come back from the other side, and fill Ms 
vacant chair, and relate the experiences he has had 
since his birth into the better world ! Is there one on 
earth who has a friend in spirit-life, but that would 
like to see and converse with that friend ? The spirit- 
ual philosophy says, Such communion awaits you. Who 
does not wish it correct on that point ? Then it is 
adapted to meet the wants of man. 

Not only is spirit-communion desirable for lonely ones 
yet clothed in mortality, but departed spirits themselves 
must long for the privilege of loving and blessing dear 
ones whom they have left behind. 

Were the angel of death to summon us this moment 
to the better land, we should leave a wife and four 
daughters, whom we love as we love our own soul. 
They may not be very much in the world; but they are 
all the world to us. We remember that this world is 
sometimes cold and heartless, especially toward the 
feminine half of humanity. Woman is not legally, 
socially, and politically man's equal ; often compelled 
to work for less than half wages, and sometimes driven 
to the alternative of stealing or starving, or, even worse 
than either, compelled to sell her virtue for the bread 
and butter the world owes her. Could we think of 
going to heaven and singing praises, and our wife and 
daughters driven to such lives as these, — we not even 
having the privilege of looking over its battlements, 
and asking, How fares thy soul ? Nay ; rather put us 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 23 

into an orthodox hell, with the privilege of an occa- 
sional respite to bless those left behind, than thus to shut 
us away from those who need a husband's love and a 
father's counsel. If this communion be not true, we 
chide with Almighty God. Has he made that false 
which man needs, and that true which is so illy adapted 
to meet his wants ? Has the Devil beaten God so 
badly, and got the best and prettiest theory after all ? 
Believe it who can : we can not. Nay ! the father, 
mother, brother, or sister who crossed the stream of 
death before us, can not lose their interest in those left 
behind. 

Another reason why the soul longs for Spiritualism is, 
that each and every one is personally interested in 
knowing what there is in reserve for him. The 
realities of another world, if there be another, we 
must soon taste. How shall we find things over there ? 
is a query which can not be expelled from any mind. 
How natural the query ! Were we emigrating to some 
distant country, how anxiously would we try to learn 
something of its location, climate, soil, timber, inhabit- 
ants, &c. ! and how should we find out ? In no other 
way than by consulting those who have been there. 
The truth is, we are all emigrants — to what place ? 
If to a haven " from whose bourn no traveler returns," 
how dark the prospect ahead ! No wonder that Job 
said, " A land of darkness as darkness itself." Certain 
it is we can learn nothing of that world, only as we 
learn it from those who have been there. Then how 
beautiful the thought, that those on the other shore can 
draw the curtain aside, as did Samuel of old, and give 
us news concerning their whereabouts and condition ! 



24 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

In hours of weary sadness, when cares are pressing 
heavily upon us, and we weary even of life itself, how 
sweet to have such spirits as Miss A. W. Sprague come 
through such mediums as Miss Lizzie Doten ; and after 
announcing that — 

" I come, I come, from my spirit-home, 
Like a bird in the early spring, 
To the loved ones here, whom my heart holds dear, 
A message of love to bring/' 

and telling us that — 

" The heavens are wide, but they can not divide 
The spirits whom love makes free I 
The green old earth, and the land of my birth, 
With its homes, are still dear to me," 

to go on and give such glowing descriptions of the 
heavenly country, that, while reading, we sometimes 
quite forget that we belong to earth ! 

" We'll be there, we'll be there, in a little while, 
We'll join the pure and the blest, 
We'll have the palm, the robe, the crown, 
And for ever be at rest." 

Oh, glorious thought ! How our soul fills with 
rapture as we contemplate the summer-land as de- 
scribed by those who have tasted its fruit, breathed its 
air, traversed its fields, and bathed in its exhilarating 
waters ! 

Spiritualism professes to heal the sick. There are 
persons (mediums) who profess, under favorable con- 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 25 

ditions, to come so en rapport with the spirit-world as 
to enter into certain magnetic relations with it, by 
which, by a touch, they can heal disease. Thus the 
blind have been made to see, the deaf to hear, and 
even the insane have, by this power, been restored to 
sanity. Call this all imagination ! How glorious such 
an imagination ! Why can it not be true ? Would 
not a religion which would do what some imagine 
Spiritualism is doing, just meet the wants of the world ? 
What a pity that such a religion should lack only the 
element of truth ! 

One more point : the idea of endless progression, as 
taught in Spiritualism, is certainly one of the most 
beautiful thoughts that ever entered the human brain. 
If that be true, not only are such men as Newton, 
Locke, Bacon, Washington, Jefferson, Clay, Webster, 
Douglas, and Lincoln alive to-day ; but they live for a 
purpose. They are interested in matters of theology 
and jurisprudence as much to-day as when they wore 
their own bodies. Let two cases illustrate our ideas ; 
and who shall they be ? One we will select from the 
theological, and one from the political world. From 
the religious world, we could not make a better selection 
than Theodore Parker. From the political world, 
Abraham Lincoln will be the man of our choice. 

It is unnecessary for us to say a word in Mr. 
Parker's praise. Most of our readers know with what 
' steady purpose his noble heart was devoted to every 
reform. Sinners feared him more than all the other 
ministers of New England put together. He always 
asked, not, What will bring the praise, honor, or wealth 
of the world ? but, What is right ? In the winter of 



26 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

1857-'58, the people of New England were insane with 
religious excitement, and yet, in their revival meetings, 
would publicly rebuke one who dared to remember the 
poor slave in his chains. Mr. Parker occupied Music 
Hall in Boston, and, from Sunday to Sunday, preached 
to the people of u The Revival of Religion which we 
need" — a revival which breaks every yoke, and tears 
away every burden ; which pays the milliner and dress- 
maker in proportion as it does the lawyer, doctor, or 
minister ; which would occasionally let a poor servant- 
girl make a summer tour to Europe, and let her pay go 
on the same as though she were a minister : in fact, a 
revival which sanctifies the kitchen as well as the pulpit. 
Such preaching was too much for New-England 
Puritanism; and the result was, the " baptized " and 
" sanctified " infidels to the purer religion held prayer- 
meetings to pray him out of the world. And when the 
news came from the " sunny South " that Theodore 
Parker was dead, what rejoicing and thanksgiving ! 
" One infidel out of the world ! " " We'll hear no 
more of Theodore Parker. He is dead and gone ! " 
How mistaken ! 

Theodore Parker is not dead. He is here now. His 
voice rings as melodiously, truthfully, and harmoniously 
in behalf of every reform as when he spoke through his 
own organism. The cause of humanity, which is the 
cause of God, lies as near his heart as ever. Still he 
follows the waymarks of those ahead of him, and beck- 
ons those behind to follow on. He, with all of us, can 
spend an eternity in exploring the vast oceans of knowl- 
edge. As here, he lives to learn ; and after the longest 
imaginable period, after he has traversed field after 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 27 

field that he does not now know exists, he will see so 
much more ahead of him, than there is in the past, 
that he can but use the sentiment of Sir Isaac Newton : 
" I seem to myself like a little child, picking up pebbles 
on the shore, while the whole ocean lies unexplored 
; before me." 

Now, as to the case of Abraham Lincoln, the la- 
mented martyr, — where is he? He, too, gave his life 
for the cause of humanity, — gave liberty to more slaves 
than any other one man in the world. Again we ask, 
Where is " Honest Abe"? This noble patriot happened 
not to be fortunate enough to belong to a church. He 
died out of Christ. The church called him an infidel. 
He died in a theater, with nothing to recommend him 
but his intelligence, his patriotism, and his unswerving 
honest fidelity. Again we ask, Where is he ? Church 
systems can not save him. Do we press the question 
too close ? We will change it, and ask, Where is 
" Stonewall Jackson " the traitor, the baptized evangeli- 
cal minister ! — one who never went into the battle- 
field to spill the pure, innocent blood of the North 
without first getting down upon his knees, and asking 
God to help him with blood to tighten the chains of 
slavery on four millions of innocent human beings ? He 
was a Christian after the " straitest sect." Of course, he 
is in heaven, singing songs, and feasting his righteous 
eyes upon the sight of Abraham Lincoln in hell. 
Reader, do you think the groans and shrieks of Mr. 
Lincoln in the " fiery pit" are music in the pious ears 
of Stonewall Jackson ? 

Do you say you do not believe that Mr. Lincoln is in 
hell ? Then where is he ? If he is in heaven, away 



28 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

goes the orthodox scheme of salvation. Men are out- 
growing and getting better than their religions, and are 
not willing to let good men out of the church go where 
their systems assign them. Look from another stand- 
point. Is Mr. Lincoln in heaven ? What is he doing 
there ? Sitting down and singing songs, 

" Where congregations ne'er break up, 
And sabbaths never end " ? 

No. Tell us that Mr. Lincoln is telling stories, and 
we may incline to believe it ; but song-singing or flat- 
tering the approbativeness of Jehovah is not his business. 
Then what is he doing ? Let Spiritualism answer. 

He bade farewell to earthly friends to join the host 
of immortal statesmen, to assist on the other side in 
carrying out the work so nobly commenced in this life. 
At present writing, we seem to be carried back to his 
birth into spirit-life, and see him clasped in the arms of 
such men as George Washington. Next he is welcomed 
to the land where all anxiety is gone, by such patriots 
as Adams, Monroe, Hancock, Jefferson, Clay, Webster, 
and Douglas ; all bidding him join the host of immortal 
statesmen, and work in their congress, where his labors 
will be crowned with tenfold the success which attended 
his efforts here. Is that all ? No. Old John Brown, 
who went before Lincoln, as John the Baptist went be- 
fore Jesus, whose soul had been marching on for six 
years, next extends his hand, and welcomes Lincoln as 
slavery's last martyr. Look again, and see the tens of 
thousands of " brave boys," whose blood has stained 
and fattened the fair fields of the South, give him the 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 29 

right hand of fellowship, and welcome him to their celes- 
tial army. But a more affecting sight yet awaits us. 
The poor slave, whose bitter experience tells more effect- 
ually than all things else the horrors and degradation 
of slavery, approaches the emancipator, the last to 
drink the bitter cup of martyrdom in consequence of 
the institution ; and, as he throws his black arms around 
his neck, we seem to hear him cry out, " Br ess de 
Lord!" whereupon myriads freed by his Emancipation 
Proclamation join in bidding him welcome to that land 
where the servant is free from his master. 

Such, dear reader, is Spiritualism. Now, we ask, 
can a theory be so beautiful, so well adapted to man, 
and not be true ? Has the God of truth been so badly 
beaten, that man's imagination has painted visions which 
so far excel the reality ? Don't tell it ! An omnipotent 
God who does all he can for man can make the reality 
more than man, in the highest flight of his imaoinino-s, 
can paint the future. Have no fear of overdrawing 
in painting the beauty and reality of the u better coun- 
try." It can not be done. There is another world, — 
one of which the present is only a reflection. There 
joy is great and lasting. 

" Its glorious light is the smile of God ; 
Its brooding atmosphere holy peace ; 
The breath of its life is the spirit of love ; 

And earth's marring passions and longings cease. 
Touch us, O death, with thy mystic wand, 
And bring us into the summer-land." 



CHAPTER II. 



THE MORAL TENDENCY OF SPIRITUALISM. 

A Natural Query — Jesus regarded as a Blasphemer and a Devil — Every new 
System passes an Era of Calumny — Persecution purifies — What Good has 
Spiritualism done — Opponents unfair — Immorality in the Churches — 
Religious Systems not responsible for Errors of their Adherents — None 
perfect — All are Grod-makers — Men worship their own Opinions — Short- 
comings of Bible Saints — Jewish Church — Testimony of Jeremiah — Of 
Jesus — Of Paul — Drunkenness and " Free-lovism" in the Early Church — 
Errors of Noah — Abraham — Isaac — Jacob — The twelve Patriarchs — 
Moses — Joshua — Samuel — David — Solomon — Jesus — Peter — Paul — 
Spiritualism a Reform School — Welcomes Sinners — Churches disfellow- 
ship Sinners — Illustrative Case — " Come and go with us" — Phenomenal 
Spiritualism — It appeals to our deepest social Feelings — The Theory of 
Spiritualism the best moral Governor — Its Philosophy — A Contrast — 
Orthodoxy and Heathenism — Eternal Punishment for Sin — Familiar Story 
— Is it Just — Living and Dying in Heaven — No Barriers to Sin — No moral 
Change at Death — Illustration — We are Authors of our Destinies — Con- 
clusion. 

~TTT"HEN a new theological or philosophical aspirant 
V V to public favor forces itself upon the people, the 
query very naturally arises, What is its moral charac- 
ter ? This is as it should be. A theory which is mor- 
ally evil can not be theologically or philosophically good. 
Still, may we not, in challenging the virtues of new sys-, 
terns, often look at them through glasses colored by old, 
dilapidated theories, and hence see vice where only vir- 
tue exists ? It was so anciently. When Jesus presented 
his claims, the response was, " This man is not of God, 
because he keepeth not the sabbath-day " (John ix. 16). 

30 






THE QUESTION SETTLED. ■ 31 

Thus, judging by the old Jewish standard, the Naza- 
rene was deserving of nothing; better than death. Yet 
his system has lived long enough to gain a reputation ; 
he has come to be considered more pure than his accus- 
ers, who were in such great fear, lest he, by his exam- 
ple or precepts, should corrupt the morals of society. 
He who was once regarded as a devil (Matt. xii. 24) 
is now worshiped as a God ; thus, 

" The demons of our sires 
Become the saints that we adore." 

No churchman found it any trouble in the days of 
Jesus and Paul to prove them guilty of blasphemy. 
See John ix. 33 ; Matt. xxvi. 65 ; Acts xiii. 44-50. 
So, now, churchmen may see huge " camels " of immo- 
rality in the Spiritualism of to-day, when only "gnats" 
exist. While it is but just to investigate the morals of 
any new system of religion, the insinuations which pop- 
ular opinion has thrown out after every system while in 
its infancy are unjust. Yet the systems thus misrepre- 
sented will not by that means sustain a permanent in- 
jury. Some will, for the time being, be deterred from 
investigating ; but that will only be transitory. The 
time will come when the falsehoods of opposers will ap- 
pear ; then men will flock to the standard of the slan- 
dered theory with more than double the zeal that 
otherwise would have characterized them in its support. 

Spiritualism, like all other new truths, has been so 
unfortunate, or fortunate, rather, as to be compelled to 
pass through the ordeal of calumny and slander. Like 
gold, purified in the fire, it will emerge from out the 



32 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

grasp of its persecutors and slanderers, purified, " made 
white, and tried." 

Let an advocate of the spiritual philosophy go to a 
place where the people know nothing of its teachings, 
and how soon his preaching is met with the question, 
What good has Spiritualism done in the world ? Some 
even lack the modesty to present their objection in the 
form of a question : they usually commence their oppo- 
sition by roundly asserting that Spiritualism never has 
done any good in the world ; that it is evil, and " only 
evil continually ; " its aim is to overthrow every good 
institution, and people the infernal regions with millions 
who otherwise would have entered the world of u celes- 
tial glory." Thus every possible effort is made to get 
the idea u grounded and settled " in the hearts of the 
people, that there is something in Spiritualism calculated 
to destroy the morals of its adherents. Cases of immo- 
rality among Spiritualists are magnified, and presented to 
the world as evidence of the downward tendency of 
Spiritualism. 

This mode of argumentation is unfair. The question 
is not, Are there immoral Spiritualists ? but, Does Spirit- 
ualism lead men and women who otherwise would be 
chaste and virtuous to lives of degradation ? We 
claim that it does not ; that its tendency is in the other 
direction. We are willing to pledge ourself to find 
more cases of immorality in any of the evangelical 
churches than any person can find among the Spiritual- 
ists of America. What shall be done when cases of 
immorality are found in the churches ? Shall they be 
held up as evidences of the immoral tendency of Chris- 
tianity ? or shall we say, as do others, that " it is human 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 33 

to err," and look upon their errors as mistakes and 
shortcomings of humanity, rather than evidence of the 
damnable tendency of their religion ? 

If the errors of Christian people are only evidences 
of the frailty of humanity, may not the errors of Spirit- 
ualists be attributed to the same source ? The truth is, 
" there is none good, no, not one." All are imperfect. 
Men differ only in degree; none walk by an infallible 
standard : yet some come nearer the standard erected 
by the world than others. No one is absolutely good, 
even in his own estimation. Not one upon earth but 
that is " found wanting," even when weighed in scales 
of his own making. No one ever yet worshiped a 
God that he did not make himself. " Man makes God 
in his own image " is a decided improvement on bibli- 
cal phraseology. Another proverb might be improved 
by having it read, " An honest God is the noblest work 
of man." 

The truth is, the Infinite never was fully comprehended 
by the finite ; but all have their ideas of Deity. These 
ideas we worship, and call God ; and as the ideas of one 
have fallen below or reached beyond those of another, 
so one has worshiped a more pure or impure god, as 
the case might be, than another. In theology, men 
have been wont to embody all that they can imagine 
that is pure, good, true, and lovely, and call that God, 
and worship it as such. As we strive in our every-day 
life to imitate the character of the god we worship, we 
approach, by constant practice, nearer to it ; yet we are 
only following on ; we can only advance in proportion as 
our ideal god advances : hence our theory must eter- 
nally be ahead of our practice. So, judging every man 
a 



34 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

by his own theory, he is not exactly correct in his life. 
The only query then is, Who are nearest the true stan- 
dard, — Spiritualists or others ? 

Were the religion of any denomination to be judged 
by the shortcomings of its members, what church could 
stand ? This mode of judging of any religious theory 
is illogical and unfair ; yet it is that adopted by the op- 
ponents of Spiritualism. Try even the religion of Bible 
times — that of the prophets and apostles themselves — 
by this standard, and upon its banners will be inscribed, 
" Mene, Mene, Tekel." 

As it is no part of our business to hunt out the short- 
comings of any sect or party, a few illustrations must 
suffice. A paragraph or two will sufficiently illustrate 
the shortcomings of Bible people, living in Bible times. 
To whom shall we go for evidence ? Shall we consult 
Porphyry, Celsus, Julian the apostate, or more modern 
infidels ? Shall Hume, Voltaire, or Paine testify ? No. 
Let us go to Bible-makers themselves. 

Jeremiah, an ancient medium, a preacher of the Jew- 
ish religion, in addressing God's ancient people, said, — 

" Behold, ye trust in lying words, that can not profit. 
Will ye steal, murder, and swear falsely, and burn in- 
cense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye 
know not, and come and stand before me in this house, 
which is called by my name, and say, We are deliv- 
ered to do these abominations? Is this, house, which is 
called by my name, become a den of robbers in your 
eyes? Behold! even I have seen it, saith the Lord." 
— Jer. vii. 8-11. 

Is it so ? Were God's ancient people, who enjoyed 
the labors of the inspired prophets, such characters ? 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 35 

Liars, thieves, murderers, and perjured persons con- 
stitute the church of God in the days of Jeremiah ! 
And is this the fountain whence Christianity springs ? 
Good heavens ! Let us hear no more of immoral 
Spiritualists. Allowing that Jeremiah tells the truth, 
is it any wonder that Jesus said, "It is written that 
my house shall be a house of prayer ; but you have 
made it a den of thieves " ? — Matt. xxi. 13. 

Hundreds of quotations from the Bible might be 
given, showing that these lamentations are not freaks of 
the imagination of Jeremiah and Jesus, but real truths. 
As the object of this chapter is not to prove that other 
religions have not made good men, but that Spiritualism 
has not made bad men, we will, with one more quotation 
from the Old Testament, close its evidence upon this 
subject. Hosea, another of Israel's ancient teachers, 
said of the church of his day, " By swearing and 
lying and killing and stealing and committing adultery, 
they break out, and blood toucheth blood." — Hos. iv. 2. 

Such extracts from Bible writers need no comment. 
The religion of the Jews failed to reform them : its ten- 
dency may have been good, but was not strong enough 
to hold a rebellious people. Now, shall we take the short- 
comings of the Jewish people as evidence of the im- 
moral tendency of their religion ? Such is the course 
pursued by anti-Spiritualists in regard to the errors and 
shortcomings of those who believe that heaven and 
earth are in communion. 

Even Christianity, anciently as well as in modern 
times, failed to reform those who embraced it. The 
church at Corinth was composed of such a notorious set 
of drunkards, that it was unwise and unsafe to adminis- 



36 * THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

ter to them the emblems of the broken body and spilled 
blood of Jesus, one of their gods : the first one that got 
the wine got drunk on it, and others were compelled to 
go away without any, doubtless not so much regretting 
their failure to celebrate their Lord's death, as the fact 
that they were not the lucky one who got the first pull 
at the wine. Hear Paul plainly state the facts : — 

"• Now this I declare to you : I praise you not, that 
ye come together not for better, but for worse. For first 
of all, when you come together in the church, I hear 
that there be divisions among you ; and I partly believe 
it. For in eating, every one of you taketh before other 
his own supper, and one is hungry, and another is 
drunken." — 1 Cor. xi. 17-21. 

Is it true that the ancient church — those who en- 
joyed the immediate labors of the apostles — could not 
come together for a religious meeting without quarrel- 
ing, and finally having their meetings terminate in a 
drunken row ? Shall we say that Christianity led to 
their drunken quarrels ? No. It only failed to prevent 
them. So Spiritualism may, in some instances, for a 
time, fail to accomplish the great work designed to be 
brought about by it ; yet those who accuse it of having 
an immoral tendency accuse it wrongfully. 

The chief charge brought against Spiritualism is that 
of "free love." By this, opponents mean a promiscu- 
ous intermingling of the sexes, opposed alike to the 
laws of God and man. While we distinctly deny that 
Spiritualism has any tendency to make man or woman 
untrue in any sense whatever, we answer, Suppose 
Spiritualism does tend in that direction ; suppose Spirit- 
ualism leads to licentiousness, and that in the woi'st 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 37 

form that the meanest opponent of Spiritualism can im- 
agine, — is it any worse than that which has ever obtained 
among the churches ? Who can find a case that will 
compare in vileness with that stated by Paul ? Hear 
him : — 

" It is reported commonly that there is fornication 
among you, and such fornication as is not so much as 
mentioned among the Gentiles, that a man should have 
his father's wife"" — 1 Cor. v. 1. 

This case is not among the Gentiles, Heathens, Spir- 
itualists, or any other class of sinners, but in the church, 
under the immediate labors of the apostles. How did 
the ancient church like such things ? Did its members 
regret that they had such characters in its fold ? Not a 
bit of it : they w T ere proud of it. Paul says, — 

" And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned 
that he that hath done this deed might be taken away 
from among you." — 1 Cor. v. 2. 

While the church in its very foundation, under the 
direct labors of its founders, is proud to acknowledge 
such lewdness, let its children of the nineteenth centuiy 
examine the block whence they were hewn, and con- 
sider whether they were not " born of fornication," 
before accusing others at too great a rate. 

A few words on the errors of Spiritualists, if thrown 
out in the right spirit, may help them to be better men 
and women. But how would a chapter look devoted to 
the errors of Bible saints? For instance, parade the 
following, as a few specimens of the errors of those 
through whom God anciently manifested himself: — 

Noah got drunk, cursed his grandson, and, some think, 
brought slavery upon a whole race, though guilty of 
no crime. — Gen. ix. 21-25. 



38 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

Just and righteous Lot (2 Pet. ii. 20-25) became 
beastly intoxicated, and committed incest with his two 
daughters, each of whom had a child by her own father. 
— Gen. xix. 31-38. 

Abraham had a plurality of wives and concubines, 
abandoned his own son, and left him to die in the wil- 
derness, married his own sister, denied his own wife, 
and attempted to kill his only legitimate son. — Gen. 
xii. 13, 19; xiv. 2-4; xv. 2-5, 12; xxi. 10-14; xxii. 
1-11. 

Isaac followed in the path of his father, and denied 
his wife. — Gen. xxvi. 6. 

Jacob took advantage of his brother's starving condi- 
tion, and cheated him out of his birthright, by lying to 
and deceiving his old blind father, and thus succeeded 
in stealing his brother's blessing ; had two wives and 
several concubines ; stole his father-in-law's cattle, 
&c — Gen. xxv. 32, 33; xxvii. 19; xxix. 18-30; 
xxx. 5 ; verse 40. 

His twelve sons followed the example of their father, 
insomuch that there is hardly a crime in the catalogue 
of which they were not guilty. 

Moses' first public act was to commit a murder. He 
advises his brethren to steal, or borrow and run away 
with the borrowed goods, w T hich is the same thing ; 
orders the destruction of innocent babes, and the cap- 
tivating of females for the purpose of prostituting them 
to the gratification of the base lusts of the Jewish sol- 
diery. — Exod. ii. 12 ; Num. xxxi. 17, 18. 

Joshua was perhaps the greatest butcher of men and 
women that ever lived. The sun is even represented 
as obeying his command to stand still while he commits 
wholesale murder. — Josh. x. 13. 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 39 

Samuel hewed an old, innocent, helpless, and defense- 
less man to pieces. — 1 Sam. xv. 33. 

David had a plurality of wives and concubines ; then 
lived an illegitimate life with the wife of Uriah ; caused 
Uriah to be killed that he might continue his licentious 
debauchery ; put his enemies under saws, axes and har- 
rows, and burned them in brick-kilns. — 2 Sam. xi. 1, 6, 
15 ; xii. 8, 29-31. 

Solomon's crimes were so great and numerous, that 
even orthodox commentators feel a little shaky about 
holding him up for an example of purity. We should 
require a larger volume than this to record them. 

Passing to the New Testament, we find matters not 
much improved. Jesus made mistakes, got angry with 
an audience because they could not answer a question, 
destroyed a drove of swine, cursed a fig-tree because it 
did not produce figs out of season, urged men to hate 
their wives and children, overthrew the tables belong- 
ing to money-changers, and by violence drove the Jews 
out of their own meeting-house. — Mark iii. 5 ; v. 13 ; 
Matt. xxi. 12, 19 ; Luke xiv. 26. 

Peter denied his Lord, cursed and swore, quarreled 
with Paul, and lived after the manner of the Gentiles, 
at the same time compelling the Gentiles to live as do 
the Jews. — Matt. xxvi. 74; Gal. ii. 11-14. 

Paul, by his own statement the " chief of sinners," 
became all things to all men, lied that the truth might 
abound, being crafty, caught his brethren with guile, 
and exhorted to obedience to bad laws. — 1 Cor. ix. 
22 ; Rom. iii. 7 ; 2 Cor. xii. 16 ; Rom. xiii. 1, 2. 

Such, dear reader, is a sample of the spots on the 
sun of Bible saints. Can Spiritualists exhibit a worse 



40 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

record ? We now come directly to the question, Is 
Spiritualism in its phenomena and philosophy immoral ? 
If immoral Spiritualists could be found in every village 
and hamlet in the world, it would no more prove Spirit- 
ualism immoral in its tendency than finding an immoral 
astronomer would prove astronomy immoral. Let it be 
understood that Spiritualism disfellowships no one on 
account of his doctrine or conduct, Believing that each 
one stands or falls to his own master, it is not our 
province to say who is or who is not worthy to hold 
communion with the inhabitants of the other world. If 
Jesus, while on earth, could talk with the Marys and 
Marthas (earth's Magdalenes), and say to the woman 
taken in the very act of adultery, u Neither do I con- 
demn thee, go, and sin no more " (John viii. 11), 
why should the denizens of the spirit-world, who have 
themselves experienced earth's bitter trials, refuse to 
hold communion with those who most need it? Let 
an individual in the church commit a great crime, let 
him wallow in drunkenness in the mire, and there is 
not a church in Christendom but that will disfellowship 
him. While they refuse to fellowship a person because 
of crime, ought there to be a sinner in the church ? No. 
Then what is to become of the poor, church-forsaken 
sinner ? He may wallow in the mire until he grows 
gray. The priest passes by on one side, and the Levite 
on the other ; neither extending a helping hand, but each 
saying, " You miserable wretch ! Go to hell for all of 
us ; we will not have our church polluted with you. 
We came not to call sinners but the righteous to re- 
pentance." Spiritualism says, " Never was there a 
man so low but there was something good there. We 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 41 

must bless such." Hence, it welcomes such to its ranks. 
It is a reform school ; and, if a person needs reforming 
either doctrinally or morally, he needs Spiritualism. 
Hence, their doctrines teach them to keep such in their 
ranks, and labor even more ardently for them than for 
those whose lives could be squared without it. Ho, 
ye vile, corrupt, polluted souls ! Spiritualism calls. Ex- 
tending its helping hand to you, it says, as Moses did to 
Hobab, " Come and go with us, and we will do thee 
good" More would we give to see one poor, drunken 
sinner embrace Spiritualism than to see every evan- 
gelical Christian in the land flock to its standard, leav- 
ing poor outcasts in the cold. If the religious systems 
of the day can make their adherents good enough, they, 
perhaps, need no better ; but, for heaven's sake, let 
Spiritualism live to bless those who are out of the reach 
of those who say, " Sit thou here, or stand thou there ; 
for I am holier than thou." 

Phenomenal Spiritualism teaches us that our friends 
whom we had supposed to be dead u are ever near us, 
though unseen." Is that immoral in its tendency ? 
There is not a Spiritualist in the world who does not 
believe that he is surrounded by an angel brotherhood ; 
that good, pure, and noble spirits are watching his 
every act, ever rejoicing in his good resolutions, and 
helping in his every effort to carry them into effect, and 
displeased, grieved, and chagrined with every wicked 
act. Spiritualists do not believe that they are ever 
alone. Fathers who have crossed death's " narrow 
stream," sainted mothers, angel wives, beautiful sons 
and daughters, all appeal with more than earthly logic 
and eloquence to the believer to " make strait paths 



42 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

for his feet." Will that belief make a man worse? 
Nay, tell us that noonday sun brings midnight darkness, 
that pure living water creates thirst, and that honey is 
bitter to the taste ; but don't tell us that a belief that 
we are surrounded by the pure and good will incline us 
to evil. 

Admit that Spiritualism is all false, that no spirit ever 
did or ever will communicate : is not the belief that they 
are around us, watching all our doings, and, perhaps, 
telling not only our doings, but our secret thoughts, to 
others (for Spiritualists believe that dead men tell 
tales sometimes), calculated to prompt us to watch our 
actions, words, and thoughts more closely than ever 
before ? We so decide. We have had experience on 
each side of this great question, and, with the stake 
before us, we could not decide otherwise. 

Are the dead with us ? Do they watch our every 

act? 

" How careful, then, ought I to live ; 
With what religious fear ! " 

Taking the above view of the subject, have not 
Spiritualists at least one stimulant to virtue not known 
to others ? 

If we turn from the phenomena to the philosophy 
taught by Spiritualism, we find that equally as urgently 
appealing to all there is of man to be true to his man- 
hood. How is it with orthodoxy ? There is not an 
evangelical church, or hardly a person who is a mem- 
ber of one, who does not indorse the sentiment that, — 

" Between the stirrup and the ground, 
Mercy was sought and pardon found." 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 43 

If the foregoing couplet is not sung by them, they do 
sing that, — 

" While the lamp holds out to burn, 
The vilest sinner may return." 

Can any thing be found in all heathenism as corrupt- 
ing as the above couplet ? It teaches the sinner to 
pursue his sinful course ; u for as long as there is life 
there is hope." Where is there a person in all ortho- 
doxy who does not believe that somehow, through the 
suffering of the innocent Nazarene, his guilty soul, all 
black with crime, will be washed and made white as the 
driven snow? The dying profligate offers a prayer, 
sheds a tear, and is immediately ushered into an upper- 
ten heaven, and, having taken advantage of the bank- 
rupt law for sin, sits down by the side of the Great 
Jehovah as pure and good as the most sinless angel. 
Spiritualists do not believe this : they believe that all 
must suffer the consequence of their own actions. 

" There is no bankrupt law for sin, 
Though Pharisee may teach it ; 
No limitation act steps in, 
Though Paul himself might preach it." 

There is no " if," u and," or proviso in the matter; 
the violator of the law can not escape : he must in his 
own proper person suffer the penalty. 

" When you can tread on burning coals, 
And never scorch your feet, 
Then you may break God's righteous law, 
Its penalty not meet." 



44 THE QUESTION -SETTLED. 

A familiar story will illustrate our ideas on this sub- 
ject. It is said that in a distant country, almost nine- 
teen centuries since, there were two individuals of 
directly opposite characters. One of them went about 
doing good, pronouncing benedictions on the poor, the 
sad, and the sorrowing. He made it his business to 
relieve all suffering under his control, whether moral, 
mental, spiritual, or physical. The other was a low, 
vile wretch, who made his living by highway robbery. 
In short, he was guilty of almost every crime in the 
calendar. 

" Now it happened that these men in their passing away 
From earth and its conflicts both died the same day." 

These men were both assassinated at the same time ; 
one on account of his crimes, the other in consequence 
of the prejudice of the people. While in the agonies 
of death, the murderer turned to the other, supposed 
by some to be a God, and said, " Lord, remember me 
when thou comest into thy kingdom." The other 
answered, " To-day shalt thou be with me in Paradise." 

Now, we are led to ask, Is it so ? Is it just ? Did 
the thief go with Jesus to Paradise that day ? If so, 
what is the difference, so far as the next world is con- 
cerned, whether a person is a Jesus or a thief? All 
have the same reward ; the only difference being, one 
has gone into heaven honorably, while the other has 
taken advantage of a bankrupt law, and gone in on 
another's ticket. 

Spiritualism does not teach that any person ever did 
or ever will go to heaven at the event called death. 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 45 

It teaches that the only way to be in heaven when one 
passes from this sphere of existence is to die in heaven, 
and that the only way to die in heaven is to live in 
heaven, and that the only way to live in heaven is to 
truly live, doing your duty toward every body and every 
thing. Spiritualists believe that man will find what he 
carries, either in this or the other world ; that he com- 
mences living in the other world where he left off here. 
If he dies a poor God-forsaken wretch, he will find 
himself such on the other side. 
The poet sings, — 

" He wept that we might weep ; 
Each sin demands a tear : 
In heaven alone no sin is found, 
And there's no weeping there." 

But Spiritualism knows of no heaven where u no 
sin is found." It wants no such place. We ask, we 
demand, the privilege of sinning to all eternity. Do not 
mistake us. We do not want to sin ; but we do want 
to prove to angels, to God, and last, though not least, 
to ourself, that we have no relish for sin : this we can 
only do by having the gates of sin thrown open, and the 
privilege of entering extended to us ; then, if we refuse, 
all will know it is because we love the right. If, on the 
other hand, we are taken into the " heaven where no 
sin is found," and compelled to do right by a power ab 
extra, no credit is due us for our rectitude. We were 
only " the clay in the hands of the potter," the ma- 
chine : if we run well, the builder, and not the machine, 
has the credit. With such an arrangement, Almighty 
God himself could not tell whether heaven was filled 



46 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

with angels or devils. Death makes man no better, no 
worse : each one finds himself, morally and spiritually, on 
the other side of its stream, where he left himself here. 
He opens his books where he closed them, commences 
living where he quit, finds himself surrounded with all 
the darkness and all the light in the summer-land that 
he has earned by his life here. 

Our religion teaches us, not only that the consequences 
of our actions must be borne by ourselves, but that 
there is an eternal punishment for every sin, that every 
act of man makes its mark, that eternity is too short 
to wipe out the scars occasioned by sin. " Be sure your 
sin will find you out," is written in the Bible of the 
Spiritualist ; and u Whatsoever a man soweth that shall 
he also reap," is as true to-day as in the first century. 

This may be illustrated in the following manner. 
Two men at the age of forty have to-day passed to the 
spirit-world. One of them has spent his two-score of 
years in acquiring a physical, intellectual, moral, and 
spiritual education, and in living out the principles he 
has learned : the other has spent his forty years in 
drunken, carousing debauchery. He enters the spirit- 
world with his moral, mental, and spiritual faculties all 
blunted by his negligence and crime, insomuch that he 
does not realize that he has a spiritual nature. Per- 
haps it will take him as long after his passage to spirit- 
life, as he endured this, to wake up to consciousness 
enough to realize that he has thrown off the animal, and 
put on the spiritual body. He will learn sooner or 
later, by experience, if in no other way, that u though 
hand join in hand, the sinner can jiot go unpunished." 
In connection with this, he will soon see the necessity 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 47* 

of progress. But, during the perhaps thrice forty years 
that he has been getting these lessons, his friend has 
been overcoming difficulties. Now he finds himself an 
almost immeasurable distance behind one by whose side 
he ought to stand. He never can reach his friend. 
After the most severe struggle, after years of incessant 
toil, he settles down with the humiliating reflection, 
u I am so many years behind one by whose side I 
should stand ! Time will not help me to catch up : 
moments are graciously given, one comes as soon as 
another passes ; and, though I improve them all, my 
friend does the same, and thus keeps his distance ahead 
of me." 

Is not that an eternal punishment ? Is it not punish- 
ment enough ? Who would, who could, endure more ? 

Church systems teach that we are what God makes 
us : Spiritualism teaches that we are what we make our- 
selves. Patient reader, which of the two theories is the 
better calculated to urge its adherents forward to seek 
and put into practice the principles of harmony and 
truth ? You are the juror. May we ask from you a 
candid and honest verdict ? 

That all may be led to see and put into practical use 
the pure principles which are being kindly vouchsafed 
to us by the angel-world, is the devout and earnest 
prayer of the writer of these pages. 



CHAPTER III. 



BIBLE DOCTRINE OF ANGEL MINISTRY. 



A Common Doctrine — Angels are Spirits — Terms "Man" and "Angel" — 
Angel Men visit Abraham, Lot, Joshua — The Host of the Lord — An Angel 
appears to Gideon; to Manoah's wife; is introduced to Manoah — Writing 
on the Wall — Daniel a Superior Medium — Gabriel both a Man and Angel 

— The Stone rolled from the Sepulchre by a Man — Cornelius's Visitant — 
Peter a Trance-Medium — A Spirit talks to him — Peter's Explanation — 
The Book of Revelation a Series of Spirit-Communications — John sees his 
Brother — An Angel — God's Family — Bible replete with History of Angelic 
Ministration — No Bible- Writer has tried to prove it — All the Angels are 
Ministering Spirits — Number of Angels — Bible Saints trusted too much to 
the Angels — Abraham's Confidence — Angels select Isaac's Wife — "Mur- 
der will out" — Moses and the Angel — Angels deliver Israel — A Whole 
Nation of Mediums — Conditions must be obeyed — Joshua developed as a 
Medium — Joshua and the Angel — A Circle — Jericho taken — The Modus 
Operandi — Camels swallowed and Gnats rejected — Angel Ministry vs. 
Miracle — The Hebrews and the Fire — Nebuchadnezzar sees an Angel — 
Jugglers play with Fire — Chemicals prevent the Penetration of Heat — Let- 
ter from Rev. J. M. Peebles — The Explanation — The Result, an Increase 
of Faith — Master Frank Goodman — Mr. D. D. Home and the Fire Tests — 
Daniel and the Lions — Prayers answered by Angels — Jesus' Prayers — 
Daniel's Prayer — Angel's Effort to answer — Another finally assists and 
succeeds — The Emancipation Proclamation — An Ancient Prayer-Meeting 

— Peter let out of Prison — Peter at the Door — Only Spirit-Raps — Modern 
Mediums released from Prison — Author does not believe — Admonition. 



" For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all 
thy ways." — Ps. xci. 11 

THERE is, perhaps, not a Christian in the world 
who does not believe, that, in past ages, angels — 
ministering spirits — came from their heavenly abode to 
bless and assist the children of God. Tell churchmen 

48 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 49 

that angels even now are watching over and blessing 
them, and they will tell you they always believed that. 
Have they not ever sung — ■ 

" There are angels hovering around " ? 

But when you inform them that God " maketh his 
angels spirits" (Ps. civ. 4), that they are all minis- 
tering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who 
shall be heirs of salvation (Heb. i. 14), some will 
shrink from you as though you were laden with a con- 
tagion which would sweep them from the earth. 
" What ! my father and mother, my dead friends, come 
back ? It is not possible ! " Yes, it is possible ; and we 
propose in this chapter to prove it. Not that we are 
going now to undertake to prove directly that spirits of 
the departed hold communion with earth's inhabitants : 
we have " rods in soak " on that question. We, in this 
chapter, design to show that " angels are spirits," and 
that they ever have and ever will administer to the in- 
habitants of earth. Perhaps our readers are not all of 
them aware that the terms " man " and " angel " are in the 
Bible used interchangeably with reference to those who 
have passed to the spirit-world. If not, a few refer- 
ences to that book will convince them that it is so. 
The three men who appeared to Abraham (Gen. xviii. 
3) were none other than men whom we call dead. 

In Gen. xix. 1, we read that two angels came to 
see Lot in Sodom ; but verses 8, 9, 10, and 12, each 
state that they were men. Verse 15 again calls them 
angels ; but, as if to for ever seal the idea that men and 
angels are the same, verse 16 says, " The men laid hold 

4 



50 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon 
the hand of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful 
unto them ; and they brought them forth, and set them 
without the city." 

In the heading of the fifth chapter of Joshua, we 
read, u An angel appeareth to Joshua ; " but in verses 
13, 14, instead of an angel appearing to Joshua, we have 
the following : — 

" And it came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho, 
that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there 
stood a man over against him, with his sword drawn in 
his hand ; and Joshua went unto him, and said unto 
him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he 
said, Nay ; bat as captain of the host of the Lord am I 
now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, 
and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my 
Lord to his servant? " 

This man declares himself to be the " captain of the 
host of the Lord ; " but the Lord's host is an angel host. 
See Gen. xxxii. 1, 2. 

The u angel of the Lord" which came to Gideon in 
Judg. vi. 11, 12 — that Gideon thought was a man, 
verse 22 — is undoubtedly the spirit of the Lord, which 
came upon Gideon in verse 34, enabling him to use 
such wisdom, stratagem, and power in putting his ene- 
mies to flight. — Jud£. vii. 19-21. 

In Judg. xiii. 3, an angel of the Lord appeared to the 
wife of Manoah ; but, when she related the matter to her 
husband, she said, " A man of God came unto me." In 
verse 8, Manoah prays for the man of God to come 
back. Verse 9 says, " God hearkened unto the prayer 
of Manoah, and the angel of God came to him ; then 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 51 

the lady introduced the angel to her husband, calling 
him " the man of God; " after which Manoah and this 
man have a long tete-d-tete, in which this man is seven 
times called an angel. 

In Dan. v. 5, it was not said to be the fingers 
of an angel's, but a man's hand, that wrote on the plaster 
of the wall of the king's palace. May we not reasona- 
bly suppose that this same man whose hand did the 
writing is the one who is called " the spirit of the holy 
gods," who influenced Daniel to interpret the writing? 
See verses 11, 14. Certain we are, that the spirit 
which influenced Daniel was said to be an excellent one 
(Dan. vi. 3) ; perhaps the same one who preserved 
Daniel's life, whom Daniel calls an angel, when he says, 
" My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' 
mouths" (verse 22). Daniel was evidently a medium, 
superior to any other in Babylon. It was for this rea- 
son that Nebuchadnezzar appointed Daniel " master of 
the magicians, astrologers, Chaldseans, and soothsayers ; 
forasmuch as an excellent spirit and knowledge and 
understanding, interpreting of dreams, and showing of 
hard sentences, and dissolving of doubts, were found in 
the same Daniel." — Dan. v. 11, 12. 

In Dan. viii. 13, one saint is heard talking to 
another. In verse 16, a man is heard talking to Ga- 
briel, who is himself distinctly called a man (see Dan. 
viii. 21). The manhood of Gabriel does not in the 
least injure his angelhood ; for we read in Luke i. 19, 
that " the angel, answering, said unto him, I am Gabriel 
that standeth in the presence of God." 

In Matt, xxviii. 1-3, we have the account of the 
ano;el of the Lord descending from heaven, and rolling 



52 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

the stone back from the door of the sepulchre, and tak- 
ing his seat on it. He is described as wearing raiment 
as white as snow, while his countenance was like the 
lightning. As this event occurred before daylight (see 
verse 1), it was a good time to exhibit spirit-lights ; and 
perhaps that was what caused the illumination of his 
' countenance. Matthew does not tell us who this angel 
was : but Mark does. He says, u And, entering into 
the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the 
right side, clothed in a long, white garment ; and they 
were affrighted." — Mark xvi. 5. 

Cases similar to the above could be multiplied almost 
ad infinitum ; but one more must suffice. 

In Acts x. 1-8, we have the history of a devout 
man, one who " prayed to God alway." The writer 
of the Book of Acts says an angel came to him, and 
told him to send men to Joppa, to the house of one Si- 
mon a tanner, located on the sea-beach ; and that he 
would find one Simon Peter, who had taken up lodg- 
ings with him ; this Peter would tell him some things he 
ought to do. So he sent his servants as per order. 
Meanwhile, Peter went upon the house-top to pray: 
while in the act of prayer, he became entranced. (As 
some . of our readers may not know what that means, 
we will invite them to visit a good trance-medium, and 
they will have its meaning ocularly demonstrated.) 
Strange visions were presented to Peter during this 
entrancement — visions which he did not understand : 
hence a spirit came to him to make an explanation. 
The spirit told him to go to the house, and find three 
men there who were seeking him, and go with them. 
From the tenor of this whole subject so far, we con- 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 53 

elude that this spirit could have been none other than 
the angel who appeared to Cornelius. Peter followed 
spirit direction, and went to the house of Cornelius, and 
asked, " To what intent have you sent for me ? " (verse 
29.) Cornelius replied, " Four days ago I was fasting 
until this hour ; and at the ninth hour, I prayed in my 
house, ana, behold, a man stood before me in bright 
clothing," &c. (verse 30). Peter, upon witnessing the 
same phenomena among the Gentiles that he formerly 
had seen among the Jews, makes the discovery that 
" God is no respecter of persons; " and hence preached 
the gospel, and administered the ordinances to them, 
the same as though they had been Jews. Peter's Jew- 
ish brethren, of course, called him to an account for his 
innovation in preaching to the Gentiles ; whereupon he 
tells his reasons for his course, the first of which was, 
" The spirit bade me go" (Acts xi. 12). The second 
was, when he got down there, Cornelius u showed us 
how he had seen an angel in his house, which stood and 
said unto him, Send men to Joppa, and call for one 
Simon, whose surname is Peter." — Acts xi. 13. 

In this narrative we have, 1st, An angel appearing to 
Cornelius. 2d, This angel goes to Peter on the house- 
top, but is a spirit when he gets there. 3d, Cornelius, 
in relating the phenomenon which occurred in his house, 
says, A man appeared to me ; and, 4th, When Peter re- 
hearsed this matter to his Jewish brethren, he said, 
a Cornelius showed us how that he had seen an angel" 
Is not this enough to elucidate the fact that the terms 
"angel," "spirit," and "man," are used synonymously 
and interchangeably in the Bible? If not, we will 



54 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

favor our readers with one more evidence, drawn from 
the Book of Revelation. 

The book known as the Apocalypse is but a commu- 
nication, or rather series of communications, from a 
circle of seven spirits. (See Rev. i. 4.) We do not 
know who they all are. Daniel the prophet was probably 
one of them (see Rev. xix. 10, xxii. 7, 8) ; Jesus the 
Nazarene another (Rev. i. 5, xxii. 16). One of them 
was seen and very minutely described in Rev. i. 14-17. 
Others were seen several times, but not described so par- 
ticularly. Seven times in this book, those who have 
ears to hear are admonished to " hear what the spirit 
saith unto the churches." Would that the churches 
even now were willing to heed the admonition to listen 
to spirit-voices ! 

In Rev. xxii. 8, John gets a view of one of the spirits 
through whom his book is being given ; again his vene- 
ration is excited, and he is about to fall down and wor- 
ship : but we will let him tell his own story. 

" And I John saw these things, and heard them. 
And, w T hen I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship 
before the feet of the angel which showed me these 
things. Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not ; for 
I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets, 
and of them which keep the sayings of this book : worship 
God." — Rev. xxii. 8. 

From the array of testimony already presented, it 
would seem to be impossible to draw any other conclu- 
sion than that angels are inhabitants of the " summer- 
land," who were once earth's children, clothed in flesh 
and blood. 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 55 

How glorious the truth that God has a family in 
heaven and upon earth ! — Eph. hi. 15. 

" One family, we dwell in Him, 

One church above "beneath, 
Though now divided by the stream, — 

The narrow stream of death. 
One army of the living God, 

To his command we bow; 
Part of his host have crossed the flood, 

And part are crossing now." 

Not a member in heaven but that once inhabited 
earth, nor a member on earth who will not some day 
go to help make up the family in heaven. 

" There are little feet I used to meet 
When the world went well with me, 
That I know will bound when the rippling sound 
Of my boat comes over the sea." 

Paul had a view of this when he said, — 
" That in the dispensation of the fullness of times he 
might gather together in one all things in Christ, both 
which are in heaven, and which are on earth." — Eph. i. 10. 
We will now advance to the more direct biblical evi- 
dences of angel ministry, and we may confess here that 
we do not know where to open the Bible ; indeed, it 
makes but little difference where we open it. So re- 
plete is that book with the doctrine and history of the 
ministry of angels, that it would be hard work to open 
to the wrong page. We can not now think of a chapter 
that does not in some way include that doctrine. Yet 
not a Bible writer has ever undertaken to prove it : they 



56 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

have always referred to it in the most familiar manner, 
as though it were impossible that any one should ever 
have thought of disputing or questioning it. No writer 
in the Bible has ever undertaken to prove the existence 
of Deity. Moses commences his record by saying, 
" In the beginning, God created the heavens and the 
earth ; " leaving us to infer his existence from the work 
lie does: so they have always referred to angel ministry 
in the same way. Not a single occurrence is related 
as though the writer supposed he was telling any thing 
strange or new ; but, on the other hand, every mani- 
festation is told in such a style, with such an air of open 
frankness, that one would suppose that the writer sup- 
posed such occurrences so familiar, that one would 
almost as soon think of questioning his own existence as 
questioning such facts. 

Paul's expression, " Are they not all ministering 
spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs 
of salvation?" (Heb. i. 14,) is not an argument, but 
rather a reference to a universally-received sentiment, 
that not a part, but all the angels are ministering 
spirits. Is it so ? Is every one who has passed to the 
" better land" an angel? and are all the angels minis- 
tering spirits ? Then, by what a host are " earth-born 
souls" surrounded! Paul calls it, "An innumerable 
company of angels, . . . spirits of just men made per- 
fect (Heb. xii. 22, 23). David calls the host, " Many 
thousands of angels " (Ps. lxviii. 17, margin). Moses 
represents these many thousand angels as being " ten 
thousand saints" (Deut. xxxiii. 2). Daniel and John 
each saw " ten thousand times ten thousand angels " 
(Dan. vii. 10; Rev. v. 11). Again: John saw a great 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 57 



These were redeemed from among the tribes of earth 
(Rev. vii. 9-16). An illustration of the number of an- 
gels which may surround and bless each individual may 
be found in the words of Jesus, " Thinkest thou that I 
can not now pray to my Father, and he shall presently 
give me more than twelve legions of angels ? " (Matt, 
xxvi. 53.) The Assyrian army numbered more than one 
hundred and eighty-five thousand soldiers, for at least 
there were that many awoke one morning and found 
themselves all dead corpses (2 Kings xix. 35) ; yet 
Elisha the prophet was perfectly confident that the an- 
gels that surrounded him would outnumber the soldiers 
of the Assyrian army (2 Kings, vi. 16). 

Our views upon this and kindred subjects, differing 
as they do from those called " orthodox," have been the 
cause of the world hailing us as "infidel" a great many 
times. Now, we care nothing for such charges, know- 
ing that their malignity can only be equaled by their 
falsity. We never believed so much of the Bible, nor 
understood it so well, as to-day ; and, though we are a 
Spiritualist from the crown of our head to the sole of 
our foot, our chief trouble with the Bible has been its 
unqualified indorsement of every thing spiritualistic. 
The writers of the Bible, and those who figured most 
largely in biblical history, placed entirely too much con- 
fidence in angel ministry. Not only did they depend 
upon their angel friends to do for them what they 
ought to have done for themselves, but they often 
put their own individuality aside, trusting their spirit- 
guides to do their thinking for them. The word with 
Israel's greatest men was, " Go and inquire of the 



58 THE QUESTION" SETTLED. 

Lord." One of her greatest kings lost his life by his 
unswerving fidelity to what came to him from the 
spirit-world. (See 1 Kings xxii. 21-33.) A case 
in point may be found in Gen. xxiv. Abraham had 
become an old man, and knew that he must shortly pass 
away ; of course, he felt a degree of solicitude about his 
son's marriage. What did he do but call his servant 
to him, and make him swear that he would go and bring 
his son a wife from the land of Canaan, assuring the 
servant that angels would pick her out ? Hear his bene- 
diction as his servant is about starting : " The Lord God 
of heaven, which took me from my father's house, and 
from the land of my kindred, and which spake unto me, 
and that swear unto me, saying, Unto thy seed will I 
give this land : he shall send his angel before thee, and 
thou shalt take a wife unto my son from thence." — Gen. 
xxiv. 7. 

The servant pursues his journey, consulting angels and 
getting tests, until, by a series of unmistakable signs, 
Rebekah was signified as the one to be Isaac's wife. 
Like a good girl, she goes along with the servant, whom 
probably she had never seen before, to marry a man 
w^hom she never had seen. Isaac took her as soon as 
the medium brought her to him, and went with her to 
keeping house in his mother's tent ; and with one little 
exception, when he denied her (which may not have 
been from a lack of affinity, but from a hereditary dis- 
ease, as his father had done the same thing), got along 
smoothly with her all his days. 

Now, we frankly confess, that, as much of a Spiritual- 
ist as we are to-day, if we wanted a wife, we would not 
take her, " sight unseen," as boys trade jack-knives, 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 59 

even though an angel did pick her out. We would 
send no less or greater a personage than ourself after 
her every time. This, dear reader, was what we meant 
when we intimated that Bible people relied too much 
on the angel world. 

To give the history of angelic manifestations among 
the Jews would be to record their entire national history. 
A few sketches must suffice to illustrate the matter. 

Moses' first public act was to commit a murder. The 
next day after killing an Egyptian, he saw two of his 
Hebrew brethren in an altercation, and strove, as a good 
brother should, to create harmony ; but the one in the 
fault said, — 

" Who made thee a prince and a judge over us ? In- 
tendest thou to kill me, as thou killedst the Egyptian ? " 
(Ex. ii. 14.) The old proverb, " Murder will out," proved 
true in this case ; and, though Moses was heir to the 
throne of Egypt, he w T as compelled to flee his country 
for his life. He went to Miclian, and fell in love with 
the daughter of a Midianitish priest, and married her, 
and engaged to act as shepherd, to take charge of his 
father-in-law's sheep. He took the sheep up into the 
mountains, and was not there very long, until his atten- 
tion was attracted by a strange light, a spirit-light, such 
as thousands of Spiritualists have seen. He, of course, 
not having witnessed such phenomena before, was aston- 
ished to see such a fire in the bush, and the leaves re- 
main green : so he turned aside to investigate the cause 
of this strange manifestation, when he discovered that 
there was an angel in the bush. By this time, Moses 
became elairaudient, and the angel enters into a conver- 
sation with him ; finally, the whole scene winds up with 



60 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

sundry physical manifestations, by which Moses him- 
self becomes convinced of his medium-power. — See 
Ex. hi., iv. 

From this time forward, not a move was made toward 
the deliverance of the children of Israel, but that was 
made under spirit-direction. When the Hebrews be- 
came convinced that angels would go with them, 
and lead them through the wilderness, they started, 
and not until then. The angel went before them, 
in the daytime in a pillar of cloud, and at night in 
a pillar of fire (Ex. xiii. 21, xiv. 19, 20). When 
they failed to see the angel, they pitched their tents, 
and tarried until they had a new spirit-manifesta- 
tion. The spirit-world seemed determined to develop a 
race of mediums : thus they led them round and round 
through the mountainous wilderness, for a period of 
forty years, to make a journey that could have been 
accomplished within forty days. The object was to de- 
velop a mediumship through which they could take the 
land and inherit it. 

During this tedious tarrying in the wilderness, they 
are again and again promised assistance from the angel- 
world, and urged to yield the most strict obedience to 
their spirit-guides. One instance out of many we must 
record. In Ex. xxiii. 20-23, the Jehovah is represented 
as speaking to them as follows : — 

" Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee 
in the way, and to bring thee into the place which 
I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his 
voice, provoke him not ; for he will not pardon your 
transgressions: for my name is in him. But if 
thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 61 

speak, then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, 
and an adversary unto thine adversaries. For mine 
angel shall go before thee, and bring thee in unto the 
Amorites, and the Hittites, and the Perizzites, and the 
Canaanites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites ; and I will 
cut them off." 

Here the promise is very positive, " Obey the voice 
of the angel," comply with the conditions, and you 
shall conquer the inhabitants of the country where you 
are going. Fail in obedience, and you will fail to get pos- 
session. To carry these promises out, when Moses gets 
so old he is no longer fit to lead Israel, he ordains Joshua 
to the work. (See Num. xxvii. 18 ; Deut. xxxiv. 9.) 
They cross the Jordan, take the land, and conquer the 
nations, according to programme ; all except the inhab- 
itants of the city of Jericho. Of it the historian says, 
" Now the city of Jericho was straitly shut up because 
of the children of Israel: none went out, and none 
came in." — Josh. vi. 1. 

Now the question arises, What can be done ? Jericho 
was surrounded by its towering walls, and Israel had no 
battering-rams of sufficient power to batter them down, 
no machinery with which to throw " shot and shell" 
over the walls. How will they take the city ? Joshua 
walked out one day, and suddenly became clairvoyant, 
and saw a man with a sword drawn in his hand. Joshua, 
supposing this man to be one yet in the flesh, says, 
" Art thou for us, or for our adversaries ? " — u Nay," says 
the angel-man, " but as captain of the host of the Lord 
am I now come." He then proceeds to give Joshua 
the conditions upon which they can deliver the city into 
Israel's hands. The substance of the conditions is, that 



62 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

a circle must be formed around the city, which must last 
seven days: the implements of their religion must be 
carried with them. The fact is, the atmosphere must 
become thoroughly impregnated with the magnetism of 
that mediumistic nation in order to produce a tremendous 
physical demonstration of spiritual power. The pro- 
gramme was carried out, the people formed their circle, 
marched around the city, raised a tremendous shout, and 
the walls fell. Now, we ask, What brought them down ? 
Did the people shout them down ? No. If the walls 
fell at all, it was a physical manifestation of spirit- 
power. How strange that men will swallow such 
stories as are found in the fifth and sixth chapters of 
Joshua, and that without the slightest evidence, the 
record aside, that they are true, and at the same time 
utterly refuse to believe stories not a hundredth part as 
large, that come to us now backed by a hundred times 
the amount of testimony ! However, we are happy to 
know that it is only in religious matters that people 
reject common sense. Now, there is not a particle of 
evidence that these things ever occurred (the evidence 
is all against it), yet men swallow it down without any 
scruples, and yet deny hundreds of well authenticated 
proofs that manifestations, the same in kind, though not 
in extent, occur every day in their own country and 
among their own neighbors. 

Had we the space, and our readers the patience, to 
pursue this interesting subject in extenso, we would ex- 
amine every so-called miracle in the Bible, and take the 
miracle out of it, and put angel ministry in its place. 
But time is precious : one or two instances must suffice. 

We have often heard of the miracle of the three 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 63 

young Hebrews being thrown into a furnace of fire, 
" made one seven times hotter than it was wont to be 
heated," and coming out without a hair of their heads 
being singed, or the smell of fire passing on their gar- 
ments. The fact is, Nebuchadnezzar said he saw four 
men walking loose in the fire, " and they have no hurt on 
them, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God" 
(Dan. iii. 25). It was a son of God, one of the very 
sons of God of whom Jesus spoke when he said, — 

" But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain 
that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither 
marry nor are given in marriage, neither can they die 
any more ; for they are equal unto the angels, and are 
children of Grod, being children of the resurrection." 
— Luke xx. 35, 36. 

Nebuchadnezzar afterwards, instead of referring to this 
deliverance as a miracle, blessed God, " who hath sent 
his angel, and delivered his servants." — Dan. iii. 28. 

Now, in all candor, we ask, Why not ? Who has not 
seen jugglers put certain chemicals on their hands, and 
thus " quench the violence of fire " ? We have. But 
all the chemicals used by these men are in the earth 
and its surroundings. May there not be chemists on the 
other side who have sufficient power to extract these 
elements, and envelop their mediums in a tissue of them, 
so refined, that heat can not penetrate it ? We believe, 
yea, we know, that, under favorable conditions, it can be 
done. 

Who of our readers has not seen or heard of Rev. 
J. M. Peebles, editor of the Western Department of 
" The Banner of Light " ? We remember, when we were 
preaching Adventism, and he Spiritualism, in Battle 



64 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

Creek, Mich., to have called on him one morning, (for 
we confess to have had a strange liking for him, even when 
we regarded him as the Devil's agent. We thought, 
" What a pity the Devil selects the best material in this 
world as his servants ! ") and he related the circumstance 
of having seen a man play with fire in such a wondrous 
manner, that had we not been a believer in the Bible, as 
well as in the veracity and intelligence of the speaker, 
we could not have credited it. We have written Mr. 
Peebles to give us the circumstance. His response is so 
direct and pointed, that we publish it entire. 



Hammonton, N.J., March 31, 1869. 

Rev. Moses Hull. 

Dear Friend, — Your favor of March 11 lies before 
me, with contents noted. I cheerfully comply with the 
request to furnish you a brief statement of a remarka- 
ble spiritual manifestation witnessed by myself through 
the mediumship of Dr. E. 0. Dunn, involving a seem- 
ing suspension of the laws connected with heat. 

These are the main facts : 

My friend Dr. Dunn, accompanying me several years 
on my lecture tours as a healing medium, speaking oc- 
casionally under spirit-control, was often entranced in 
my presence. Our electric atmospheres naturally inter- 
mingling, the magnetic sympathy became finally so 
intensified, that a portion of my circle of spirits could 
quite easily throw the doctor into an unconscious trance 
condition. 

One of these spirit-guides — a thinker and practical 
chemist on earth — was Perasee Lendanta, living in the 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 65 

mediaeval ages, and equally conversant with the Christian 
and Neoplatonic dogmas. Whenever he entranced the 
doctor, I expected a feast of reason and flow of sound 
thought. 

At the close of a service in Battle Creek, Mich., 
on a Sunday of June, 1862, inviting and even urging 
the doctor, he accompanied me home. Soon, while 
comfortably sitting in my library-room, he became sud- 
denly entranced, and, during the entrancement, this 
conversation, with the manifestation, followed : — 

" Owing to the good conditions to-day," said the 
spirit, " I was enabled to approach very near you while 
lecturing; thus infusing much of my own force and 
thought into your discourse." 

" Thank you. I felt your presence. You are to me 
like a wall of fire and a shield of brass, imparting a 
stern, positive, independent feeling." 

" The world has yet to learn the full import of the 
terms ' individualism,' c self-reliance,' ; independence.' 
. . . What inquiries to-day ? " 

" I desire to ask this question : Were Shadrach, Me- 
shach, and Abednego cast into a fiery furnace, coming 
out with not a hair of their ' heads singed,' nor the 
' smell of fire ' upon them ? " 

u I don't know, sir. Was not there." 

" Well, do you believe the recorded scriptural ac- 
count?" 

" Most certainly, I do." 

" Why do you believe it ? " 

" In the first place, because reasonable, and, in the 
second place, because the same and even more remarka- 
ble things may be done in the present." 

5 



66 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

" If so (half smiling, half doubting), I should like to 
see a slight practical illustration of your position." 

" If you have a large kerosene-lamp in your house, 
procure, light, and place it before this medium, with the 
blaze on, high as it will bear." 

Securing the lamp, and placing it before the doctor 
in full blaze, this controlling spirit thrust the medium's 
hand into it, holding it there full five minutes ; the flames 
streaming up between the fingers. It seemed as though 
it must be burned to a crisp. Finally, the spirit-intelli- 
gence removing it, I wiped the smoke and soot from the 
hand, and it was not in the least injured by the fire. 
After a little spasmodic struggling, as usual, the medium 
became conscious, complaining only of a terrible mag- 
netic pressure upon his head. This soon wore away, 
when, before leaving the room, he was again entranced. 

u There ! " said the spirit, " you have seen a man's 
hand thrust into the fire, and not burned." 

" Certainly, I have : now tell me how you did it." 

" Owing to the feebleness of the English language in 
the line of metaphysics and spiritual science, this would 
be a more difficult task than to seemingly destroy the law 
of heat. I will try. Aided by others, I gathered or 
accreted fine, etherealized spirit-substances from sur- 
rounding spirit-space, and, polarizing and otherwise 
preparing them, constructed a sort of electric coating 
or covering, winding it close around the medium's hand. 
This covering was just as impervious to heat as is a 
pane of glass to the beating rain-drops. Furthermore, 
I could envelop this whole mortal form in this magnetic 
mantle ; and, so long as I could maintain the requisite 
conditions, the body would not be injured by fire. 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 67 

" Something very similar is evidenced in the case of 
the three men cast into the fiery furnace. It was an 
ancient spiritual manifestation. Your Scriptures say, 
1 Lo, I see four men loose walking in the midst of the 
fire ; . . . and the form of the fourth is like the Son of 
God.' This 'fourth,' seen by the clairvoyant eye, was 
an angel, or spiritual being that once inhabited your or 
some other earth in the universe of the infinite." 

This circle of spirits has given me other manifesta- 
tions more wonderful than the above, paralleling those 
of biblical times. Thus the past and present are made 
to unite in their testimony of spirit manifestation and 
communion. I have a more clear, logical faith to-day in 
those visions, dreams, prophecies, healings, trances, and 
other wonderful manifestations recorded in the Jewish 
and Christian Scriptures, than when wearing my clerical 
robes. And the partially "hushed" infidelity of Pres- 
byterian, Baptist, Methodist, Universalist, and Second- 
Advent Christians, is to me absolutely shocking. By 
the "grace of God," let us, Brother Hull (aided by the 
sweet fellowship of angels), continue to pray and to 
labor for the enlightenment and salvation of those Chris- 
tians whose impudence is only excelled by their deplora- 
ble ignorance of natural law, spiritual science, and the 
watchful presence of God's ministering spirits. 
Most truly thine, 

J. M. Peebles. 

After such evidence, from such a source, it would seem 
that nothing further is necessary ; yet we find it hard to 
resist the temptation to present other .evidences. 

In a late number of " The American Spiritualist," 



68 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

we find a lengthy communication from A. Goodman 
of Columbus, O., giving the history of the mediumship 
of Master Frank Goodman, a lad of eleven summers. 
Mr. Goodman says, — 

" Next came showing, touching, and shaking of hands ; 
playing on guitar ; and raising Frank to the ceiling. 
All this was done in daylight, except the raising of the 
medium ; that, with the showing of phosphoric lights, 
requiring darkness. Now, in conclusion, I will only 
add a few of many equally wonderful manifestations, 
given since our return to this place. One is the fire- 
test, in which the medium, while entranced, handles red- 
hot coals, without the slightest injury ; also thrusts his 
head into the grate among the flames, without a hair 
being singed. Another is the ring-test. The spirits 
having made the request, I obtained five copper rings, 
of different sizes, which Frank keeps with other articles 
in a small tin box. One day recently, while out on the 
street, all these rings were put upon his arms and legs, 
under all his clothing, without his knowledge : and he 
was obliged to wear them for a week ; for, in trying to 
remove one of them, I gave him so much pain, that I 
had to give it up. They were taken off by the spirits 
as quietly as they were put on." 

The writer concludes his article by saying, — 

" Any one desiring further information with regard 
to the same is at liberty to address the writer, or to visit 
us in person." 

Will our skeptical readers avail themselves of this 
privilege ? It may help them to arrive at a knowledge 
of the truth. 

A London correspondent of " The New- York Times," 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 69 

in speaking of Mr. D. D. Home and his mediumship, 
says, — 

" He was carried horizontally out of a window in the 

third story of the house of Lord , and brought in at 

the window of another room, some thirty feet distant ; 
having been carried through the air forty feet or more 
from the ground. Finally, he has on several occasions 
taken a large live coal from a coal-fire, held it in his 
hand, and laid it in the hands of other persons, without 
even the smell of fire or the sensation of heat being 
perceived by them. My informant showed us where his 
own finger had been burnt in testing the value of this 
manifestation. He assured me that he had seen Mr. 
Home go to a large coal-fire, and lay his face upon the 
white-hot coals, without singeing his hair or beard. As 
this is a pretty strong story, I beg to append the follow- 
ing, which I find in ' The Spiritual Magazine ' for this 
month. Mr. Hall is the well-known editor of ' The Art 
Journal;' his wife, Mrs. S. C. Hall, is well known as 
a writer, and has lately received a pension from the 
queen. 

15 Ashley Place, Victoria Street, S.W. 

Sir, — I state facts without explanation or comment. 
On the 27th of December, I was sitting, with nine other 
persons, in my drawing-room. Mr. D. D. Home left 
the table, went to a bright fire, took thence a lump of 
living coal, brought it red to the table, and placed it 
on my head. Not a hair was singed, nor did I sustain 
any injury. The coal remained upon my head about 
a minute. Mr. Home then took it, and placed it in 
Mrs. Hall's hand, without injury to her ; and he after- 
wards placed it in the hands of two of our guests. The 



70 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

gas-light and two candles were burning in the room. I 
add that the nine other persons present would depose 
to these facts. Your obedient servant, 

S. C. Hall. 

" The editor adds the following note : ' At the confer- 
ence at Lawson's Rooms, Jan. 14, Mr. H. D. Jenckin 
publicly stated the facts here given by Mr. Hall, and 
added several instances of the kind which he had 
witnessed. The fire-test, he said, had now been seen 
by more than fifty persons in the metropolis and its 
neighborhood.' " 

Epes Sargent, in his " Despair of Science," says, — 

" At a seance in London, in 1860, in the presence of 
several persons (whose names are at the service of the 
curious), Mr. Home, being entranced, did, in the pres- 
ence of all, lay his head on the burning coals ; where it 
remained several moments, he sustaining no injury : not 
a hair of his head was singed." — Pp. 97, 98. 

We have already referred to the so-called miracle of 
the deliverance of Daniel from the hungry lions ; but 
it was only a physical manifestation of spirit-power. 
Daniel says, — 

" My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the 
lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me ; forasmuch 
as before him innocency was found in me ; and also 
before thee, O king, have I done no hurt." — Dan. vi. 22. 

While we have strong confidence in prayer, fully 
believing that prayers are heard and answered, we do 
not believe that God has any other way of answering 
prayer but by virtue of angel ministry. It was an 
angel that administered to Jesus in the Garden of Geth- 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 71 

semane, when, in the bitterness of his soul, he prayed, 
" Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me" 
(Luke xxii. 43). He could pray to his Father, and, as a 
result, have more than twelve legions of angels to assist 
him (Matt. xxvi. 53). It was in answer to prayer, that 
the angel came to Cornelius (Acts x. 1). In Daniel, 
chapters ix. and x., we have a very full history of the 
prophet's three weeks' prayer and fasting. At the end 
of this time, " a certain man clothed in linen," whom 
Daniel describes very minutely, came to him ; spirit 
hands touched him ; " one like the similitude of the sons 
of men" opened his mouth, and enabled him to speak. 
There were other parties with Daniel, who were not suf- 
ficiently developed to see ; yet " great quaking fell upon 
them." This man, or angel, that came to Daniel, in- 
formed him that his prayers were heard long ago ; but 
the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood him 
twenty-one days, that is, just three weeks, exactly the 
length of time Daniel was praying (compare verses 2, 3, 
with 12, 13, of Dan. x.) ; after which, says the angel, 

: " Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me." 
This Prince Michael is prince among the angels (see 
Jude 9 ; Dan. ix. 21). The two, Michael and this other 

; angel-man, succeeded in working upon the prince of the 
kingdom of Persia : so that Daniel's prayer was an- 
swered. The emancipation proclamation was written 
and sent out by the prince of the kingdom of Persia, 
and Israel was again free. 

A very important case of the answer to prayer by 
angels is found in Acts xii. 4-16. The case is so in- 
teresting, we give it entire. 

" And, when he had apprehended him, he put him 



i 



72 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of sol- 
diers to keep him ; intending, after Easter, to bring him 
forth to the people. Peter, therefore, was kept in prison ; 
but prayer was made without ceasing of the church 
unto God for him. And when Herod would have 
brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping 
between two soldiers, bound with two chains : and the 
keepers before the door kept the prison. And, behold, 
the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined 
in the prison ; and he smote Peter on the side, and 
raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains 
fell off from his hands. And the angel said unto him, 
Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals ; and so he did. 
And he saith unto him, Cast thy garment about thee, 
and follow me. And he went out, and followed him, 
and wist not that it was true which was done by the 
angel ; but thought he saw a vision. When they 
were past the first and the second ward, they came unto 
the iron gate that leadeth unto the city, which opened 
to them of his own accord ; and they went out, and 
passed on through one street ; and forthwith the angel 
departed from him. And when Peter was come to him- 
self, he said, Now I know of a surety, that the Lord 
hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the 
hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the peo- 
ple of the Jews. And when he had considered the thing, 
he came to the house of Mary the mother of John, 
whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered 
together praying. And as Peter knocked at the door 
of the gate, a damsel came to hearken, named Rhoda. 
And when she knew Peter's voice, she opened not the 
gate for gladness, but ran in, and told how Peter stood 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 73 

before the gate. And they said unto her, Thou art 
mad. But she constantly affirmed that it was even so. 
Then said they, It is his angel. But Peter continued 
knocking : and when they had opened the door, and saw 
him, they were astonished." 

A similar case is found in Acts v. 19-26. We can 
not take up any sentence of this lengthy paragraph and 
elucidate it. We see nothing inconsistent or miracu- 
lous in the transaction. The soldiers were, doubtless, 
thrown into a sound magnetic sleep. The light which 
shone in the prison was a spirit-light, sucli as our own 
eyes have beheld on several occasions. The doors did 
not, as Peter supposed, open of their own accord : Peter 
was not sufficiently clairvoyant to see the angel who un- 
locked them, and swung them back on their hinges. 
How natural that he should go to the house of Mary ! 
there was a magnet there ; there it was that his breth- 
ren were assembled for prayers, and angels were col- 
lected. When the u raps " were heard at the door, 
how natural that little Rhoda should be the one who 
should open it, and, in her joy exclaim, " It's Peter, it's 
Peter ! " But the church had not witnessed enough of 
the phenomena to be fully convinced : so their first con- 
clusion was, " The damsel is mad," the girl is insane. 
Soon, however, they change their mind, and conclude 
that the raps are only spirit-raps : hence they assert, " It 
is his angel." 

Now, we are frank to acknowledge that we believe 
the whole circumstance. We have seen things so simi- 
lar, that we should be untrue to ourself to deny this. 
The same law which produces such things now could 
have produced them then. 



74 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

Mr. Rand and the Davenport brothers were once 
imprisoned in the common jail of the city of Oswego, 
N.Y., for the crime of demonstrating immortality, with- 
out taking out a juggler's license. Mr. Rand himself tells 
the story of his release ; from it we extract the follow- 
ing : — 

" They were informed by the spirits that the prison- 
doors would be opened before their time expired ; and, 
in the evening previous to its expiration, a voice spoke 
in the room, and said that I was to go out that night. 
I was told to put on my coat and hat, and be ready. It 
was oppressively warm in our small room, with the win- 
dow and door both closed ; and I asked if I could be 
allowed to sit with my coat off, as I did not expect we 
should be released for more than an hour ; but the an- 
swer was, ' Put on thy coat and hat. Be ready.' I did 
so, not even then supposing we should be released until 
the jailer and his family had retired, and all might be 
still without. But I was disappointed. Immediately, 
not probably twenty minutes from the time we were 
locked up, the door was thrown open ; and the voice 
again spoke, and said, ' Now go quickly. Take with 
you the rope (for a rope had been in our room, which 
had been used for another purpose in our former room, 
as we have previously said), go to yonder garret-win- 
dow, and let thyself down, and flee from this place. 
We will take care of the boys. There are many an- 
gels present, though but one speaks.' I hastily passed 
on, and strictly obeyed the angel. The boys came out 
with me into the hall, took up the lock which lay upon 
the floor, and for the first time examined it : spoke of 
its being warm. The angel told them, as they subse- 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 75 

quently informed me, to go into the room again ; and the 
door was closed and locked again by the angel, and 
they were to remain there for the night." — History of 
Davenports, by Rev. Orrin Abbott, p. 70. 

The above case we have investigated quite thorough- 
ly. We know, that, so far as human testimony is con- 
cerned, its truth is established beyond a reasonable doubt. 
Other cases of the same kind have occurred within our 
knowledge ; then, why should we deny such things when 
found in the Bible ? 

Now, shall we say we believe in angel ministry? 
We can not. Taking all these biblical evidences, to- 
gether with the modern phenomena, including what 
our eyes have seen and our ears have heard, we can 
not believe, we know, " angels are ministering spirits." 

" They come, and night is no more night, 
Pale sorrow's reign is o'er ; 
And death is but the gate of light, 
And gloomy now no more." 

We have been too often blessed, advised, protected, 
defended, delivered, and saved by them, to entertain 
doubts on the subject. We know the angels have 
taken us out of the hands of ferocious mobs. We 
know that they are always present, that the thoughts 
we now pen are influxes from the spirit-world. Angels 
.are even now in the room. 



" How cheering the thought that the spirits in bliss 
Do bow their bright wings to a world such as this, 
Do leave their bright home in the mansions above 
To breathe o'er our spirits some message of love ! " 



<6 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

Dear reader, would you know of this divine commun- 
ion ? Would you enjoy the society of an angel brother- 
hood ? Would you be led in green pastures, beside the 
still waters ? Would you drink from the never-failing 
fountain of inspiration ? Then place yourself in a con- 
dition where you can enjoy communion with your u elder 
brethren." It will open to your soul fountains of hap- 
piness the world can know nothing of. That readers 
and writer may ever be led into the paths of truth and 
righteousness, and be accounted worthy, even during 
this life, to associate with the inhabitants of the angel- 
world, is our most devout and humble prayer. 



■ 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE THREE PILLARS OF SPIRITUALISM. 

Spiritual Platform — Three Propositions — Man has a Spiritual Nature — Spirit 
not immaterial — Spiritual Alan — Source of Evidence — Biblical Testimony 

— Elihu — Zephaniah — Papal Decree — Hard Questions — Can not answer 
all — Spiritual Senses — Blind and Deaf Man — Illustration — Man Double — 
Two Fathers — Two Sources of Knowledge — Peter awakened — Two Con- 
tradictory Histories of Jesus — Both true — Jesus did not always believe 
his own Prophecies — Somnambulism an Important Witness — Author's 
Case — A Lady and the Fine Arts — Dr. Slade and Spirit Pictures — The 
modus operandi — Psychometry — Discourses read from the Hand, the 
Walls of the House, &c. — Paul's Case — Outward and Inward Man — One 
perishes, the other endures — Modern Facts — Apparitions of the Living — 
Mrs. Hauffe — Lady in Albany — Apparition at St. Louis — Hiram Dayton 
badly mixed — His Father appears — Case in New Orleans — Drowning Per- 
sons — Spirit continues after the Death of the Body — Spirit a Conscious 
Entity — Spirits in Prison — G-ospel preached to the Dead — Spirits return 

— Modern Spiritualism a Repetition of that of the Bible — Samuel and Saul 

— No Devil or Witch in the Case — Josephus's Testimony — Character of 
the Woman — Moses and Elias — " Only a Vision" — Various Phases of Mani- 
festation — Child Medium — Written Communication from Elijah the Proph- 
et — Belshazzar's Palace Wall — Elias must come — John the Baptist a 
Medium — This was Elias — "He hath a Devil" — Ezekiel's Mediumship 

— Saul a Medium — An Evil Spirit visits him — Modern Evidences — Dr. 
Johnson's Testimony — Vision of a French Marquis — Prediction fulfilled — 
Testimony Conclusive. 

PERHAPS we have pursued our investigation far 
enough to hand to our readers a platform upon 
which Spiritualism rests. As we now have the " ball" 
fairly opened, we may as well proceed to lav down a 
digest of some of the main evidences of Spiritualism, 
more especially those upon which we as an individual 
predicate our faith. 

77 



78 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

The " holy trinity " upon which Spiritualism is built, 
with which it stands or falls, and which must be 
attacked by opponents who would inaugurate an hon- 
orable warfare upon it, can be represented in the fol- 
lowing sentences : — 

1. Man has a spiritual nature. 

2. That spiritual nature exists and retains its con- 
sciousness after the dissolution of the body. 

3. That spiritual nature, after it leaves the body, can 
come en rapport with and communicate to those yet in the 
flesh. 

All must see that with these propositions Spiritualism 
meets its fate. Take any one of them fairly away from 
Spiritualism, and upon its banners you write, " Thou 
art weighed in a balance and found wanting." On the 
other hand, with the sustaining of this trinity, Spirit- 
ualism becomes a tri-unity, a " threefold cord," which 
a wise man has said " is not easily broken." With the 
sustaining of these three propositions, Spiritualism be- 
comes a citadel of strength, so fortified that its enemies 
can do but little more than to pick at its microscopic 
crudities and irregularities. Then let us turn our 
attention at once to their proof. 

Man has a Spiritual Nature. 

By this proposition we do not mean that man has an 
immaterial nature. The word " immaterial " has so long 
been connected with " spiritual," that the world has come 
to consider them synonymous. Yet one stands opposed 
to animal ; while the other can be better represented by 
the word " nothing " than any other in the English Ian- 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 79 

guage. That which is material is something; that which 
is the opposite of material is immaterial ; that which is 
the opposite of something is nothing : hence that which 
is immaterial is nothing. This being true, those who 
take the position that spirit is immaterial deny its 
existence. 

By the term u spiritual " we mean what the ancient 
Greeks meant by the term pneumatikon ; that is, not 
animal, not corporeal, a nature not comprehended 
through the external organs of sense. 

As we hold to no theory but that we can prove, either 
with or without the Bible, we will on this subject draw 
our first proofs from that book ; not that they are true 
because they are in the Bible, but they are there be- 
cause those who placed them there regarded them as 
true. There are thousands in the world to-day who 
would not dare to say their souls were their own, unless 
their Bible told them so ; who would only require one 
u Thus saith the Scripture," to convince them that a 
man was older than his father ; that the sun stood still 
about twelve hours while a Hebrew general marched 
his army several hundred miles, and fought six battles ; 
that a man caught three hundred foxes, and turned 
tail to tail, and tied firebrands between them, and by 
that means burned down thousands of acres of his 
neighbor's green corn ; that a whale got down into the 
Mediterranean Sea and swallowed a man ; that after a 
three-days residence in the stomach of a great fish, dur- 
ing which time Jonah graduated, and prepared for the 
ministry, he entered unharmed upon his calling, went 
as a missionary to Nineveh, and proved himself divinely 
called, by uttering predictions which never were fulfilled ; 



80 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

that fire refused to burn certain Jews ; and that sun- 
dry miracles were wrought by the Man of Nazareth on 
purpose to convince the people of his divinity, and yet 
the divine decree had gone forth, that, " seeing, they 
should see and not perceive, and, hearing, they should 
hear and not understand." For the benefit of such, we 
will first exhibit a sample of the biblical evidences that 
man has a spiritual nature. 

The prophet Elihu has introduced this subject in the 
following unmistakable language : — 

" There is a spirit in man ; and the inspiration of the 
Almighty giveth them understanding." — Job xxxii. 8. 

A more positive declaration of spiritualistic faith could 
not be made by the most sanguine Spiritualist ; nor 
is this an isolated proof of this position. The Bible 
abounds in declarations as positive as the above. Zecha- 
riah, another of Israel's prophets, said, — 

" The Lord . . . forme th the spirit of man within 
him." — Zech. xii. 1. 

In this declaration, we not only have the assertion 
that man has a spirit, but that it is formed, shaped. 

Pope Leo X. decreed that u the spirit is the same form 
as the body." We do not doubt that this decree of the 
infallible head of the Church is true, not, however, be- 
cause it was decreed, any more than the rising of the 
sun to-morrow morning would be the result of a decree 
of his papal Majesty. 

When we get thus far with our subject, we know that 
some of our readers who do not comprehend spiritual 
things are ready with a legion of questions concerning 
man's spiritual nature. May we confess right here, that, 
probably, we can not answer your questions? That, 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 81 

however, neither proves our theory untrue, nor our in- 
competency to rationally reason upon it. Paul says, — 

" But the natural man receiveth not the things of 
the Spirit of God ; for they are foolishness unto him : 
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually 
discerned. But he that is spiritual judge th all things ; 
yet he himself is judged of no man." — 1 Cor. ii. 14, 15. 

From this we learn that it is impossible for him whose 
spiritual faculties have not been aroused to understand 
spiritual things. " Neither can he know them" Then, 
why should we try to make him comprehend them ? 
While we can not explain spiritual things to the " natu- 
ral man " (and the spiritual man needs no explanation : 
he gets his knowledge of these things by intuition, not 
by tuition), we may be able to call his attention to 
phenomenal evidences which may convince him, that, 
though he can not understand them, they may, never- 
theless, be true. We can not explain how light passes 
through a pane of glass without either glass or light be- 
ing disorganized, yet we can any day, and in any house, 
point to such phenomena. We can not make the man 
who was born without eyes understand the difference 
between red, white, and blue ; yet we can make him 
know that we see a difference which is not tangible to 
his senses. Discourse sweetest music to a totally deaf 
man, until the last hair on your head turns gray, and 
you can not make him comprehend that there is an inter- 
val of a fifth between C and G. 

We said, and have set out to prove, that man has a 
spiritual nature. We now assert that man is double ; 
he has a duplex entity. If Paul understood this ques- 
tion, we all have two fathers. His language is, — 

6 



82 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

" Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh, 
which corrected us ; and we gave them reverence : shall 
we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of 
spirits, and live ? " — Heb. xii. 9. 

This passage deserves more than a cursory notice. 
Paul says, " We have had fathers (plaral) of our 
flesh ; and we gave them (plural) reverence : shall we 
not much rather be in subjection to the Father (singu- 
lar) of spirits (plural), and live ? " By this we see that 
though there may be as many fathers of the flesh of 
our readers as there are readers, yet their spirits all 
have the same father. This father is God, who is a 
spirit. — John iv. 24 ; Acts xvii. 29. 

Man, having two fathers, might reasonably be expect- 
ed to have two natures, sometimes called two men (see 
2 Cor. iv. 16). There are two sources whence men 
get knowledge. Some things we learn by aid of our 
five senses ; some things we know independent of the 
organs of sense. 

Jesus once said to Peter, " that he must go to Jeru- 
salem, and suffer many things of the elders, chief priests, 
and scribes, and be killed." But Peter did not believe 
it. He rebuked his Master, and said, "Be it far from 
thee, Lord : this shall not be unto thee." Whereupon, 
Jesus says, " Get thee behind me, Satan : thou art an 
offense unto me ; for thou savorest not the things that 
be of God, but those that be of men." — See Matt. xvi. 
21-23. 

What other idea can any one glean from this than 
that Peter was not in a spiritual condition? he could 
understand the things that came to his fleshly senses 
from flesh and blood ; other things he could not under- 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 83 

stand. But Peter's spiritual senses are not always 
asleep. On another occasion, Jesus asks him, " Whom 
do men say that I the Son of man am?" Peter an- 
swered, " Some say that thou art John the Baptist ; 
some, Elias ; and others, Jeremias, or one of the proph- 
ets." Then Jesus put the question directly to his 
disciples, " Whom do ye say that I am?" Peter says, 
" Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God." 
Jesus responds, " Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona ; 
for flesh and blood hath not revealed this to thee, but my 
Father which is in heaven." — Matt. xvi. 13-17. 

Who wonders that Jesus calls him blessed ? He was 
in a condition where he was receiving knowledge inde- 
pendent of fleshly organs. He was not indebted even 
to his own fleshly eyes and ears for that revelation. 

The two paragraphs above quoted show very plainly 
that at one time Peter was in a condition that he was 
not in at another. Once he *' savored not the things 
of God ; " at another time was receiving knowledge 
not from flesh and blood, but directly from the Father 
in heaven. Such is the history of all spiritually-minded 
persons ; sometimes they seem so infilled with the spirit 
that all space and time are annihilated. The past is 
brought up with peculiar distinctness, and " coming 
events cast their shadows before." They see through 
solid walls, and at a distance, the same as though there 
was nothing to obstruct the vision. At other times, the 
animal man holds the dominion, and they, the same as 
others, view events from a material standpoint. At 
such times, they not unfrequently disbelieve what their 
own spiritual senses have told them ; and many dispute 
what they, in the moments of their illumination, so 



84 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

clearly saw, that they could have pledged their own 
existence on its reality. It was so with Jesus : at 
times, his spirit seemed to reach out and grasp the 
future, so that he could say, " The Son of man shall 
be betrayed into the hands of men, and be crucified." 
At other times, he did not believe his own predic- 
tions, and he would promise his disciples that they 
should have a hundred times the amount of real estate 
in this world, for following him, that they could get 
by any other means ; that they should sit on twelve 
thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel ; that they 
should not taste of death till they should see his king- 
dom established with power. He even went so far on 
one occasion as to take the kingdom by violent force ; 
but he saw his mistake afterward, and wept over it. — 
See Mark x. 29, 30 ; Matt. xix. 28, xvi. 28, xxi. 9-13, 
xxiii. 37-39. 

Somnambulism is an important witness to the double 
entity of man. Its facts are so patent, that, perhaps, 
there is not one who will read this volume who will not 
remember having heard of persons getting up in their 
sleep, and performing wonderful feats of physical or 
mental strength. At the age of fourteen years, we 
were employed to carry shingles upon a three-story 
brick house ; and several persons now living will testify, 
that, after the first day's work, we got up in our sleep 
in the night and took a bunch of white-wood shingles, 
perhaps five hundred, and carried them up on the 
house. Half of the number would have been more 
than we could have carried in our normal condition. 
When told of it the next morning, though we had 
been in the habit of sleep-walking ever since we were 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 85 

three years old, we could hardly believe the report of 
the witnesses ; and we have never, from that day to 
this, been able to gather the faintest recollection of 
even dreaming of carrying shingles that night. 

We remember to have read somewhere of a lady 
getting up in her sleep, and, in that condition, painting 
a picture, which, as a work of art, could not be excelled 
by the best artists in Europe. This lady was surprised, 
when admiring the painting the next day, to learn that 
she herself was its author ; that she had done in a few 
hours, in a state of sound sleep, what she could by no 
possibility accomplish in her waking hours. 

We know that Dr. Henry Slade of Jackson, Mich., 
when in an unconscious magnetic trance, has, in one 
hour, produced an exact life-size likeness of his w^ife, 
which, as a work of art, could not be excelled on this 
continent. The picture is in existence to-day, and 
more than a thousand witnesses in Michigan and New 
York can testify that the representation is true to life. 

How are these things done ? We have but one 
answer. " There is a natural body, and there is a 
spiritual body." One or the other of these bodies must 
hold the positive dominion. Ordinarily, in perfect physi- 
cal health, the animal man is positive. " But, though 
the outward man perish, the inward man is renewed 
day by day." As the outward man loses strength, 
the spiritual, or inward man becomes positive : hence, 
if the physical man can be put into a perfectly sound 
sleep, it will be in a perfectly negative condition ; 
then if the spiritual man can take the physical while 
asleep, and use it without awaking it, it can certainly 
control it better than it could when the physical was 



86 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

positive. So with mediumsliip : an organism that can 
be put into a sound magnetic sleep, and then used by a 
spirit-power, without being disturbed or awakened, will 
always make a good medium. 

Psychometry might be presented as another evidence 
that man has a spiritual nature. We all have senses 
that we little dream of. Even dumb animals manifest 
powers which our positive intellectuality prevents many 
men and women from knowing they possess. .The dog 
tracks the hare or fox with unerring certainty : so he 
will distinguish his master's track from that of ten thou- 
sand other men, by the 'peculiar kind of caloric his mas- 
ter throws off. Every individual is surrounded by a 
magnetic aura peculiar to him or her self: that we 
read often, without knowing it. Who has not often, 
upon being introduced to persons, formed an attach- 
ment, or taken a dislike, that no future acquaintance 
could change ? Why was it ? We answer, " The spir- 
its, unknown, it may be, to the physical organism, sought 
and obtained an introduction to each other. They saw 
an affinity, or lack of it, as the case might be, that may 
require the bodies many months to learn." We have on 
several occasions met entire strangers, and recognized 
them by this magnetic atmosphere. We could not tell 
how we knew them, yet we were as positive who and 
what they were before as after a formal introduction. 
" How do you tell ? " said a gentleman to us whom we 
called by name, never having seen him before. " By 
my feelings," was our response. " It is the most ridicu- 
lous nonsense," ejaculated our interrogator. " The 
natural man receive th not the things of the spirit, 
neither can he know them ; they are foolishness unto himj' 
was our reply. 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 87 

Though we never yet took a manuscript into an 
audience, we have not, in almost seventeen years' con- 
stant preaching, delivered as much as one discourse that 
we did not read. When we get up to speak, we can 
not look where our discourse is not ; we can see it pho- 
tographed on the walls of the room ; we can read it in 
the countenances of our audience, or in our bare hand, 
or hear it in the very silence of the room, in pauses 
between our words. 

Of these phenomena we could not even attempt an 
explanation : all we can say is, there is a spiritual 
world, and man is endowed with spiritual senses, which 
occasionally get a glimpse of what is behind the curtain 
of gross materiality. 

We could weary the reader with volumes of such evi- 
dences as have been here presented. Indeed, it is more 
trouble to cease than to write ; but we must approach the 
more direct evidence of the duplex entity of man. 

The great apostle to the Gentiles relates an historical 
fact bearing directly upon this point. He says, " I 
knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, whether 
in the body or out of the body I can not tell ; God know- 
eth ; such an one caught up to the third heaven, . . . 
and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful 
[possible] for man to utter." — 2 Cor. xii. 2-4. 

From this emphatic declaration of the learned Paul, 
we learn that he supposed it possible for a man to exist 
out of the body. Had man been all body, as certain 
ones suppose, and Paul understood it so, he never could 
have used the language, " Whether in the body or out 
of the body I can not tell." Again : the fact that words 
were heard which could not be uttered by corporeal 



88 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

organs of speech is proof abundant, not only that there 
is a language that fleshly lips can not speak, but that 
the man which exists sometimes in the body and some- 
times out of it can hear when out of the body. 

The spiritual nature, upon the existence of which 
depends the proof of Spiritualism, is, by Paul, referred 
to as follows : — 

" For which cause we faint not ; but though our out- 
ward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day 
by day." — 2 Cor. iv. 16. 

The inward man is certainly not the corporeal or ani- 
mal man ; for one man of that kind does not dwell 
within another. Although we are getting ahead of our 
subject, we must be permitted to say, that this text is a 
most positive proof of our second proposition, viz., that 
the spiritual nature exists and retains its consciousness 
after the body is dead. The outward man perish, and 
the inward man renewed? What can be plainer? 
Again : when the inward man is out of the body, from 
the fact of its having perished, or from any other cause, it 
hears unspeakable words, — words unuttered by fleshly 
lips. Could we have the framing of testimony to our 
liking, we could not make the matter more plain than 
Paul has done in these two instances. 

But, to come to more modern facts, who has not read 
and heard and known of instances of persons leaving 
the body, even here in this life, and appearing, some- 
times at a distance of hundreds of miles from it ; thus 
giving proof of their double entity ? 

Take the case related by Capt. Robert Bruce, of the 
man on the wrecked vessel appearing at the same time 
on another vessel, several leagues distant, and writing 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 89 

on the captain's slate, " Steer to the nor' west." Mr. 
Bruce himself saw the man write ; .others saw the 
writing. They steered as directed, and saved the lives 
of a crew by doing so. The man who did the writing, 
it appeared afterward, by a comparison of the notes 
of the two sea-captains, was in a trance at the time it 
was done. 

If the reader will take the trouble to take the book 
called " Footfalls on the Boundaries of Another World," 
by Hon. Robert Dale Owen, and read any two or three 
of the several well-authenticated cases he records un- 
der the heading " apparitions of the living," we feel 
assured that he will be convinced that man has a spiritual 
nature, which can exist either in or out of the body. 

As the whole spiritualistic argument has been sus- 
pended upon this proposition, permit us to carry the 
argument further. The sin of prolixity is not so great 
as that of brevity, where there is so much at stake. 

Of Mrs. Hauffe, the seeress of Prevorst, Kerner 
says, " She was more than half a spirit, and belonged to 
a world of spirits : she belonged to a world after death, 
and was more than half dead. In her sleep only was 
she truly awake. Nay, so loose was the connection be- 
tween soul and body, that, like Swedenborg, she often 
went out of the body, and could contemplate it sepa- 
rately." — Despair of Science, p. 146. 

The following, taken from " The Albany Times," 
seems to illustrate the truth of our proposition : — 

" Some two weeks since, a young lady living here, 
whose father is engaged in mercantile business in 
this city, awoke from a sleep, feeling distressed and 
alarmed from the effects of an unpleasant dream. The 



90 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

gas-light was burning, but had been turned down to 
the closest point ; thus making a dim light in the room, 
and rendering portions of it almost dark. Soon after 
awaking, the young lady's attention was attracted by 
the well-defined figure of a lady of her acquaintance 
moving from the door, some ten feet from the foot of 
her bed, toward it. Impulsively she called the figure 
by name, on the instant forgetting the improbability of 
the friend being in the house, and the fact that she was 
not a resident of the city, but resided in St. Louis. 
Soon, however, all this recurred to her, and the figure 
already neared the now alarmed girl. The form and 
features were perfect and distinct, the expression one 
of cheerful greeting ; and, as it approached closer and 
closer to her side, it became dimmer and dimmer, and 
finally disappeared entirely when it had advanced to 
about half the length of the bed. The nervousness 
caused by this incident naturally enough induced the 
young lady to arouse the family, who ascribed the mat- 
ter to exciting imaginings. But there was a singular 
sequel. She had forebodings, notwithstanding all that 
was said to calm them ; and the next day wrote to her 
friend, detailing the incident. An answer w r as prompt- 
ly received, announcing the good health of the writer, 
and the fact, that on the same night, and at the same 
hour, she had been visited in precisely the same manner 
by the semblance of her friend in Albany, and been 
alarmed thereby, lest it was the forerunner of evil. 
The mutual revelation was a relief to both. The cir- 
cumstance, we think, has few, if any, parallels, and can 
partially be ascribed to the love the two girls had for 
each other, and to active nervous temperaments ; but, 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 91 

as to an entirely satisfactory explanation of it, we think 
none can be given." 

This circumstance is recorded as an historical fact, 
nothing more : and as such we demand that it be met. 
It will not do to laugh at these things ; they won't be 
laughed down : they occur, and demand an explanation. 
Let the savans of science look at and explain a few such 
extracts as the foregoing ; and, if that is not enough, 
here is another taken from " The Banner of Light : " — 

" Question, by Hiram Dayton of Cincinnati, O. : 
I have always entertained strong doubts in regard to the 
real truth of spirit-communication ; but a communica- 
tion received by me on the night of Oct. 20 places me 
in a worse condition than ever. I believe, yea, I know ; 
yet I do not believe, and donH know. 

" On the night above referred to, I attended a small 
circle in the house of Mr. Brayton, on Ninth Street. 
The medium's name was Josephine Gray, whom I had 
never seen before ; neither was I in the least acquaint- 
ed with Mr. Brayton. When under the influence, my 
father came and spoke through her in a wonderfully 
mysterious manner. 

" My father resides in Albany, N.Y., has lived there 
over forty years ; yet he came and told me all about 
home, describing as correctly as I could have done ; 
even giving names of persons, together with their streets 
and numbers, with whom I am acquainted ; and, lastly, 
said he was very sick, and quite delirious, but thought 
he should recover soon. 

" I could not gainsay the statement ; but of his sickness 
I could not believe. The following day, I wrote him a 
letter, detailing all of the circumstances connected with 
the communication. 



92 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

" On the 23d of October, I received a letter from my 
sister, stating that our father had been very sick, but 
was now better. But I heard nothing from my letter to 
him until the 12th of December, when I received a 
letter, written by his own hand, which states that on the 
20th of October he was very sick, and says that my 
sister tells him he was quite delirious for two or three 
hours. My father says he has no recollection of what 
passed during the time referred to by my sister ; neither 
does he remember of seeing or dreaming about me. 
He says, to him the two or three hours referred to were 
a perfect blank ; and he does not appear to understand 
how he could converse through another without know- 
ing it. Please explain this strange phenomenon." 

With one more extract we will close this department 
of the subject. 

" The Spiritual Telegraph " says, " A New-Haven 
gentleman relates the following : Some years ago, a gen- 
tleman of the name of Daboll, residing in New London, 
Conn., who was reputed to possess the faculty of see- 
ing things in distant parts of the tfoihtry, was applied 
to for information respecting a sea-captain and vessel 
which had sailed from that port, and concerning whose 
fate there was some uneasiness. The old gentleman re- 
tired, and shortly afterward returned, and said he had 
seen the captain at a certain porter-house at New Orleans, 
in the act of drinking a bowl of punch, and that he was 
then on the eve of sailing for home. The circumstance 
was noted down, together with the day and hour of the 
observation. In due time, the captain returned home 
with his vessel, and was questioned respecting his where- 
abouts on the day above referred to. He said, among 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 93 

other things, that he was at a certain porter-house in 
New Orleans, and that, as he was regaling himself with 
a bowl of punch, he plainly saw old Mr. Daboll come 
in at one door, and go out at another. Many of our 
readers will recollect an almost precisely similar circum- 
stance related by Jerry Stilling about an old seer who 
resided in solitude on the banks of the Delaware, near 
Philadelphia." 

Such facts need no comment. When they are 
properly explained, the spiritual nature of man will 
appear. We ourself have had an experience somewhat 
similar to the one above related. 

We have been so fortunate as to have had the privi- 
lege of conversing with several persons who had been 
supposed to be dead ; some from drowning, some from 
wounds received in battle, and two or three who had 
been supposed to die a natural death, but had recov- 
ered from their catalepsy. In almost every instance, 
the subject has related an experience which proves him 
to have had a conscious existence separate from the 
physical organism. Some have told where they had 
been and what they had seen, and, occasionally, one has 
given an unmistakable test, by which we could know 
not only that the subject was sincere in thinking he had 
left his body, but that he had actually seen places and 
parties many miles away from his body, in some in- 
stances giving so many et cseteras, that he could not 
possibly have learned in any other way, that it would 
seem impossible to disbelieve his testimony. 

We remember one individual in particular, who, being 
drowned and afterward resuscitated, in giving his expe- 
rience, said, that while drowning, he distinctly remembered 



94 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

every act of his life. Matters of great and small impor- 
tance were presented with like vivid distinctness ; tilings 
long gone out of mind were as fresh to him as at the in- 
stant of their transaction. After viewing, as in pano- 
ramic scene, his own life, the vision faded before him. 
He then remembered leaving his body ; of viewing him- 
self in the water and out of the water at the same time ; 
of being for a few moments confused to make out which 
was really himself, or whether it was not all a dream ; 
of discovering a magnetic cord (could with propriety be 
termed a spiritual umbilical cord ; Solomon calls it a 
" silver cord," Eccl. xii. 6) by which he was prevented 
from getting entirely away from the animal body, &c. 
The whole circumstance was related to us in such 
a serious manner, and with such an air of truthfulness, 
that we could come to no other conclusion than that to 
the relator it was a reality. 

Now we are tempted to ask, What do such experiences 
mean ? They are so many and so varied, that, if they 
were written, " the world itself could not contain the 
books." Yet not one who has ever passed through 
such a scene has had the hardihood afterward to deny 
his belief in his spiritual nature. 

We now approach the second division of the argu- 
ment, viz., — 

The Spiritual Nature of Man exists in a Conscious State 
after the Body is dead. 

Most Bible believers acknowledge this proposition. 
Some do not. For the benefit of such, we will state 
that it is a Bible doctrine, that knowledge inheres in 
spirit. 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 95 

" For what man knoweth the things of a man, save 
the spirit of a man which is in him ? " — 1 Cor. ii. 11. 

This text affirms just what our proposition does, — 
that knowledge inheres in spirit. Paul once more makes 
the same affirmation. Hear him : — 

" For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but 
against principalities, against powers, against the rulers 
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wicked- 
ness [wicked spirits] in high places." — Eph. vi. 12. 

Certainly, wickedness can not be predicated of that 
which is not conscious ; but it is predicated of spirit : 
therefore spirit is conscious. 

No one will contend that the spirit who said to Philip, 
" Go near and join thyself to this chariot" (Acts viii. 
29), was unconscious. 

This same spirit gave a physical demonstration of his 
power when he " caught away Philip that the eunuch 
saw him no more." — Acts viii. 39. 

The writer of the Book of Acts says, — 

" For unclean spirits, crying with a loud voice, came 
out of many that were possessed with them ; and many 
taken with palsies, and that were lame, were healed." — 
Acts viii. 7. 

Permit us to ask, How could these unclean spirits 
take possession of media, and cry with a loud voice, if 
they had no conscious existence ? Such paragraphs as 
the one just quoted can be found by the score in the 
Bible. Do they mean any thing? They do not, unless 
their writers supposed the spirit to be a conscious 
entity. 

With the elucidation of one more thought, we will 
pass to the last and most important proposition of this 
chapter. Peter says, — 



96 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

" For Christ also hath once suffered for our sins, the 
just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God ; 
being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the 
spirit : by which, also, he went and preached to the 
spirits in prison ; which sometime were disobedient in 
the days of Noah, while the ark was preparing, wherein 
few, that is eight souls, were saved by water." — 1 Pet. 
iii. 18-20. 

In this text there are three expressions which should 
be weighed. 1st, " Christ being put to death in the 
flesh," i. e., the flesh being put to death, " but quickened 
by the spirit." The best scholars inform us that a better 
rendering would be, " Christ suffered the stroke of death 
in the flesh, but survived it in the spirit" How plain ! 
The flesh put to death, the spirit survives. 

2d, The next point to which we would call atten- 
tion is, " By which he [Christ, who survived in the 
spirit] went and preached to the spirits in prison." 

8d, These spirits were departed spirits of human 
beings ; for they were none other than those who were 
disobedient in the days of Noah. These spirits, certain- 
ly, could not hear preaching if they did not exist in 
a conscious state. This statement is corroborated by 
another statement from the same author. 

" For this cause was the gospel preached also to them 
that are dead, that they might be judged according to 
men in the flesh, but live according to God in the 
spirit." — 1 Pet. iv. 6. 

What sense can there be in using the phrase, " men 
in the flesh," if there are no men out of the flesh, — 
if, indeed, flesh, blood, and breath is all there is of 
man ? 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 97 

We now come to a consideration of the argument 
from another standpoint. It is as follows : — 

Spirits of the Departed can communicate with the Inhab- 
itants of Earth. 

This proposition is the " stumbling-block," this con- 
tains the offensive part, of Spiritualism ; drop this, and 
a majority of our readers will admit the preceding 
ones. Only keep spirits away from this earth, keep 
heaven and earth apart, and all is well ; but write that 
spirits in and out of the flesh hold sweet communion, 
and you are at once a heretic, worthy of nothing 
better than the fate of Michael Servetus, or the Salem 
witches. 

On this, as on other departments of this subject, our 
first evidences shall be drawn from the Bible. 

After having spent twelve years in the investigation 
of Spiritualism as an opponent, and almost six years as 
an advocate, we are compelled to say that modern 
Spiritualism is but a repetition of ancient Spiritualism, 
as manifest in the Bible. We can not now think of a 
form of manifestation in the Bible but that can be dupli- 
cated in modern manifestations, and vice versa. 

The case of Samuel returning to Saul is so irresisti- 
ble, that we present it first. The historian prefaces his 
historical fact with the words, — 

" Now, Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented 
him, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. 
And Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits, 
and the wizards, out of the land." — 1 Sam. xxviii. 3. 

But the Jehovah being a " jealous God " (Ex. xx. 5) 
had become angry witli Saul, and left him to manage 



98 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

his own affairs. In his extremity, Saul had recourse to 
other gods ; for be it remembered, that while this Jew- 
ish God is nothing more nor less than the spirit of a dead 
man, as we will abundantly prove, every spirit that com- 
municated was a god. Thus when a band of spirits, led 
on by Samuel the prophet, came to the woman, she 
said, " I saw gods ascending out of the earth." She 
immediately, in response to Saul's inquiry, proceeds to 
describe one. Her lan^uao-e is, " An old man cometh 
up, and he is covered with a mantle." From this de- 
scription, Saul perceived that it was Samuel. Now, we 
will, without note or comment, let the historian tell his 
own story. 

" And Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquiet- 
ed me, to bring me up ? And Saul answered, I am 
sore distressed ; for the Philistines make war against 
me, and God is departed from me, and answereth me 
no more, neither by prophets nor by dreams : therefore 
I have called thee, that thou mayest make known unto 
me what I shall do. Then said Samuel, Wherefore, 
then, dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is departed 
from thee, and is become thine enemy ? And the Lord 
hath done to him as he spake by me ; for the Lord hath 
rent the kingdom out of thine hand, and given it to 
thy neighbor, even to David. Because thou obeyedst 
not the voice of the Lord, nor executedst his fierce 
wrath upon Amalek, therefore hath the Lord done this 
thing unto thee this day. Moreover, the Lord will 
also deliver Israel with thee into the hand of the Phil- 
istines ; and to-morrow shalt thou and thy sons be with 
me : the Lord, also, shall deliver the host of Israel into 
the hand of the Philistines. Then Saul fell straight- 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 99 

way all along on the earth, and was sore afraid, because 
of the words of Samuel : and there was no strength in 
him; for he had eaten no bread all the day nor all 
the night." 

We have given this whole history in order that our 
readers may see the similarity in ancient and modern 
Spiritualism. There is only one question underlying 
the whole circumstance ; that is, Is the Bible true ? If 
so, Samuel not only had a conscious existence after the 
world called him dead, but he returned to talk with 
Saul, who was an old acquaintance. If this record 
is not true, we ask the opponents of Spiritualism, in all 
candor, how they know that any of the Bible is true ? 
The Bible says, " Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou 
disquieted me?" &c. Christians, again we ask, Is your 
Bible true ? If so, the question is settled. 

" No," said a minister to us, " the Devil came to this 
old witch and Saul, personating Samuel." We could 
but ask, " Who told you so ? " 

But it matters not whether it was Samuel, the Devil, 
or an ignis fatuus ; whether the woman was a witch, a 
medium, or a member of an orthodox Presbyterian 
church ; to us and all others the evidence is the same. 
From it, in either case, the following stubborn conclu- 
sions are irresistible : — - 

1. It was the opinion of Saul (who was a Jewish 
prophet, and ought to know) that Samuel was there, 
and conversed with him. 

2. The woman evidently thought Samuel was there. 

3. The Jewish nation, " to whom were committed 
the oracles of God " (Rom. hi. 2) ever believed that 
Samuel was there. 



100 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

4. The writer of the Book of Samuel says, without 
note or comment, Samuel was there. He makes no 
reservation, no explanation ; records it, not as being a 
strange circumstance ; but as a matter of course. 

5. Finally, though we resisted the evidence twelve 
long years, we fully believe Samuel was there ; we find 
no room to doubt it ; as well doubt the fact of Saul or 
the woman having been present on that occasion. 

Josephus, a Jewish historian, has said that the woman 
was a necromancer ; that she saw Samuel. His account 
of the matter reads as follows : — 

" She told Saul she saw an old man already, and of 
a glorious personage, and that he had on a sacerdotal 
mantle. So the king discovered by these signs that he 
was Samuel ; and he fell down upon the ground, and 
saluted and worshiped him. And when the soul of 
Samuel asked him why he had disturbed him, and 
caused him to be brought up, he lamented the neces- 
sity he was under ; for he said that his enemies pressed 
heavily upon him ; that he was in distress what to do 
in his present circumstances ; that he was forsaken of 
God, and could obtain no prediction of what was com- 
ing, neither by prophets nor by dreams ; and that these 
are the reasons I have recourse to thee, who always 
takest care of me." 

Upon this, one of our most pithy writers, W. F. 
Jamieson, remarks, " Poor, distressed Saul; my soul 
always sympathizes with him when I read the account. 
His guardian angel or spirit lord was thrown into a 
rage because Saul refused to obey him in the conduct 
of the war with the Amalekites. That Saul may have 
believed that the God of the universe was his adviser, 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 101 

and had refused to answer him because of his disobedi- 
ence, is reasonable. There are people in this day who 
believe they talk with God. God is often belittled hi 
the imagination as a fretful, passionate, finite being." 

But Josephus continues, " But Samuel, seeing that 
the end of Saul's life was come, said, ' It is vain for 
thee to desire to learn of me any thing further, when 
God hath forsaken thee ; however, hear what I say, 
that David is to be king, and to finish this war with 
good success ; and thou art to lose thy dominion and 
thy life, because thou didst not obey God in the war 
with the Amalekites, and hast not kept his command- 
ments as I foretold thee while I was alive.' " — Antiqui- 
ties of the Jews, chap. xiv. 

Since the opposers of modern Spiritualism are find- 
ing the conclusions Spiritualists draw from this irre- 
sistible, they have concluded to impede its force by 
slandering the character of the lady who officiated as 
medium on this occasion. In addition to calling her 
"an old witch," there has never been an insinuation 
made against the character of a modern medium but 
has been used to injure the reputation of the benevo- 
lent lady whom Saul sought in the hour of his dis- 
tress. The object, of course, is to create a prejudice by 
which to kill the force of this manifestation. Happily, 
a Jewish historian has come to her rescue. The char- 
acter of one medium, at least, finds a defender. Jose- 
phus says, — 

" It is but just to recommend the generosity of this 
woman, because, when the king had forbidden her to 
use that art whence her circumstances were bettered 
and improved, and when she had never seen the king 



102 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

before, she still did not remember to his disadvantage 
that he had condemned her sort of learning, and did 
not refuse him as a stranger and one that she had no 
acquaintance with ; but she had compassion upon him, 
and comforted him, and exhorted him to do what he 
was greatly averse to, and offered him the only creature 
she had, as a poor woman, and that earnestly and with 
great humanity, while she had no requital made her for 
her kindness, nor hunted after any future favor from 
him, for she knew that he was to die : whereas, men 
are naturally either ambitious to please those that 
bestow benefits upon them, or are very ready to serve 
those from whom they may receive some advantage. It 
would be well, therefore, to imitate the example of this 
woman, and do kindness to all such as are in want, 
and to think that nothing is better, nor more becoming 
mankind, than such general beneficence, nor what will 
sooner render God favorable, and ready to bestow 
good things upon us." 

The case of the appearance of Moses and Elias is 
positive proof of our proposition. One writer records 
this phenomenon as follows : — 

" And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and 
John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high 
mountain apart, and was transfigured before them ; and 
his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white 
as the light. And, behold, there appeared unto them 
Moses and Elias talking with him. Then answered 
Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be 
here : if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles ; 
one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. 
While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 103 

them : and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, 
This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased : 
hear ye him. And, when the disciples heard it, they 
fell on their face, and were sore afraid. And Jesus 
came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not 
afraid." — Matt, xvii. 1-7. 

Luke's record is even more positive and spiritualistic 
than that of Matthew. As Luke has made some points 
worthy of attention, which Matthew did not mention, 
we quote his record entire : — 

; " And it came to pass about an eight days after these 
sayings, he took Peter and John and James, and went 
up into a mountain to pray. And as he prayed, the 
fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment 
was white and glistering. And, behold, there talked with 
him two men, which were Moses and Elias, who ap- 
peared in glory, and spake of his decease which he 
should accomplish at Jerusalem. But Peter and they 
that were with him were heavy with sleep ; and, when 
they were awake, they saw his glory, and the two men 
that stood with him. And it came to pass, as they de- 
parted from him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is 
good for us to be here : and let us make three taber- 
nacles ; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for 
Elias ; not knowing what he said. While he thus spake, 
there came a cloud and overshadowed them ; and they 
feared as they entered into the cloud. And there came 
a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved 
Son : hear him. And when the voice was past, Jesus 
was found alone. And they kept it close, and told no 
man in those days any of those things which they had 
seen." — Luke ix. 28-36. 



104 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

This can not be any thing else than the appearance 
of those we call dead ; for the Bible says, — 

" So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the 
land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord. And 
he buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, over 
against Beth-peor ; but no man knoweth of his sepulchre 
unto this day. And Moses was a hundred and twenty 
years old when he died : his eye w^as not dim, nor his 
natural force abated." — Deut. xxxiv. 5-7. 

If the record is true, " there talked with him two men, 
which iv ere Moses and Ellas." How can this be met? 
" Oh ! " say our materialistic opposers, "it is only a 
vision : Moses and Elias were not there." We can not 
see how the declaration, " Tell the vision to no man," 
should lead us to dispute the record which says, " Moses 
and Elias talked with him," any more than the record 
which says, " They came, saying that they had also seen 
a vision of angels, which said that he was alive" (Luke 
xxiv. 23), should cause us to say that angels never 
come to earth. In this " vision," we have not only the 
talking of the dead to the living, but there was evidently 
a spirit-light ; for Jesus is surrounded by a cloud so 
bright, that his face and garments are all aglow. The 
disciples were evidently unconsciously entranced ; for 
Peter talked without knowing what he said. A spirit- 
voice, such as is now heard every day, was heard at this 
time, saying, " This is my beloved son." 

We not only affirm that spirits can and do return and 
communicate, but that every form of the manifestation 
of modern Spiritualism is found in the Bible. Perhaps 
there is no form of mediumship now more popular than 
that of writing. There are now various phases of writ- 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 105 

ing mediumship. Dr. Henry Slacle of Jackson, Mich., 
and Peter West of Chicago, are, perhaps, the best writ- 
ing mediums in the circle of our acquaintance. We 
have often known pencils to write in their presence, in 
broad daylight, without any visible hand touching them. 
There is a little girl not yet four years old, in Newton 
Corner, Mass., who has had the names of deceased per- 
sons come in large vivid letters upon her arm, when 
there was no visible cause for the strange manifestation. 
The " hand- writing " was never plainer on " the walls 
of the king's palace " than we ourself have seen it on 
the walls of our own bedroom. Some of the finest 
poems and plays we have ever read were written by an 
entranced medium. 

Different phases of writing mediumship can be found 
in the Bible. After Elijah the prophet had been in the 
spirit-world at least seven years, we read, — 

" And there came a writing to him [King Jehoram] 
from Elijah the prophet, saying, Thus saith the Lord 
God of David thy father, Because thou hast not walked 
in the ways of Jehoshaphat thy father, nor in the ways 
of Asa king of Judah, but hast walked in the way of 
the kings of Israel, and hast made Judah and the inhab- 
itants of Jerusalem to go a whoring, like to the whore- 
doms of the house of Ahab, and also hast slain thy breth- 
ren of thy father's house, which were better than thyself, 
behold, with a great plague will the Lord smite thy 
people, and thy children, and thy wives, and all thy 
goods ; and thou shalt have great sickness by disease 
of thy bowels, until thy bowels fall out by reason of the 
sickness day by day." — 2 Chron. xxi. 12-16. 

This Jehoram was not exalted to the throne until 



106 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

after Elisha's return from Elijah's funeral, when the two 
she bears killed the forty-two children (see 2 Kings ii. 
23-25, hi. 1, 2) ; but this written communication from 
Elijah is the death-warrant of the king, whose wicked 
reign lasted eight years. Hence there is no escaping 
the fact that it is a genuine spirit-communication. 

In Dan. v. 5, is another written communication. The 
words of the text are, — 

" In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's 
hand, and wrote over against the candlestick upon the 
plaster of the wall of the king's palace ; and the king 
saw the part of the hand that wrote." 

Shall we believe such things in the Bible, and reject 
similar modern manifestations ? Or, to reverse the 
proposition, are not modern phenomena a testimony to 
the truth of such declarations of holy writ ? 

We are not yet ready to take leave of the communi- 
cations from and manifestations of the spirit of Elijah. 
The Jews had a tradition that Elias [Elijah the prophet] 
must come (Matt. xvii. 11). This tradition was, per- 
haps, based on the prediction, — 

" Behold, 1 will send you Elijah the prophet before 
the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord." 
— Mai. iv. 5. 

When the birth of John the Baptist was foretold, it 
was said of him, — 

" And he shall go before him in the spirit and power 
of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the chil- 
dren, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just ; to 
make ready a people prepared for the Lord." — Luke 
i. 17. 

John does go out in the spirit of Elijah, and manifests 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 107 

all of his idiosyncrasies ; and, as a result, the Jews ex- 
claim, "He hath a Devil" (Matt. xi. 18). The word 
" devit^" in this instance, comes from the Greek word 
daimon, which the Greeks, who should understand their 
own language, interpreted to mean the spirit of a dead 
man. How similar is this to the charge now brought 
against those under the influence of spirits ! 

To make assurance in regard to John being under 
Elijah's influence doubly sure, Jesus, after the martyr- 
dom of John, says of him, u And, if ye will receive it, 
this is Elias which was for to come." — Matt. xi. 14. 
Again we read, — 

"And his disciples asked him, saying, Why, then, 
say the scribes that Elias must first come ? And Jesus 
answered and said urito them, Elias truly shall first 
come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, that 
Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have 
done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall 
also the Son of man suffer of them. Then the disci- 
ples understood that he spake unto them of John the 
Baptist." 

So far as argument from the Bible is concerned, we 
must consider the question settled. Though there are 
hundreds of passages in that book bearing upon the 
point, there are none more positive than many of those 
already quoted. 

For the benefit of the curious who wish to pursue 
this part of the investigation further, we subjoin a few 
scriptural statements without comment. Ezekiel was 
a great medium, as will be evinced by the following : — 

" Then the spirit took me up, and I heard behind me 
a voice of a great rushing, saying, Blessed be the glory 
of the Lord from his place." — Ezek. hi. 12. 



108 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

" Then the spirit entered into me, and set me upon 
my feet, and spake with me, and said unto me, Go, shut 
thvself within thine house." — Ezek. iii. 24. 

" Then I beheld, and, lo, a likeness as the appearance 
of fire ; from the appearance of his loins, even down- 
ward, fire ; and from his loins, even upward, as the ap- 
pearance of brightness, as the color of amber. And he 
put forth the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of 
mine head; and the spirit lifted me up between the earth 
and the heaven, and brought me in the visions of God 
to Jerusalem, to the door of the inner gate that looketh 
toward the north ; where was the seat of the image of 
jealousy, which provoketh to jealousy." — Ezek. viii. 
2,3. 

Here is either a physical manifestation of spirit-power, 
or Ezekiel's spirit leaves his body, and is caught away 
"in the visions of God to Jerusalem.". In either case, 
it affords the most positive proof of Spiritualism. The 
spirits with which Ezekiel deals to so great an extent 
are several times called men. — See Ezek. ix. 2, 3, 11. 

" Afterwards the spirit took me up, and brought me 
in a vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldaea, to them 
of the captivity. So the vision that I had seen went 
up from me. Then I spake unto them of the captivity 
all the things that the Lord had showed me." — Ezek. 
xi. 24, 25. 

Death did not change the moral status of men in an- 
cient times more than it does now ; hence, the spirits 
communicating were not alw r ays good and truthful. In 
1 Sam. xvi. 14-17, w T e read, — 

" But the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and 
an evil spirit from the Lord troubled him. And Saul's 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 109 

servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from 
God troubleth thee. Let our lord now command thy 
servants, which are before thee, to seek out a man who 
is a cunning player on a harp ; and it shall come to pass 
when the evil spirit from God is upon thee, that he 
shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well. And 
Saul said unto his servants, Provide me now a man 
that can play well, and bring him to me." 

David was the man provided. 

" And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God 
was upon Saul, that David took a harp, and played with 
his hand : so Saul was refreshed, and was well, a»d the 
evil spirit departed from him." — 1 Sam. xvi. 23. 

Lying spirits once got the control of four hundred 
prophets at one time. — See 1 Kings xxii. 

Permit us, in conclusion, to present a few evidences 
from the pages of every-day life ; and we must preface 
them with the truthful words of the renowned Dr. 
Johnson. 

" That the dead are seen no more," says the great 
lexicographer, " I will not undertake to maintain against 
the concurrent testimony of all ages and nations. There 
is no people, rude or unlearned, among whom appari- 
tions of the dead are not . related and believed. This 
opinion, which prevails as far as human nature is diffused, 
could become universal only by its truth ; those who 
never heard of one another would not have agreed in a 
tale which nothing but experience could make credible. 
That it is doubted by single cavilers can very little 
weaken the general evidence ; and some who deny it 
with their tongues confess it with their fears." 

Had our readers the time and disposition to candidly 



110 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

peruse the works of Hon. Robert Dale Owen and Wil- 
liam Howitt, on this subject, they would find a mine 
which would richly repay their explorations ; besides, it 
would satisfy those who have brains, and use them, that 
the dead do return. The following extract, taken 
from " The Spiritual Times " of London, is to the 
point : — 

" The Marquis de Bamtouillet and the Marquis de 
Precey were intimate friends and companions in arms. 
Talking, one day, of the next world, they promised that 
the one who died first should return to tell the other of 
the event. Three months subsequently, the Marquis 
de Bamtouillet started for the seat of war in Flanders : 
his friend, being detained by fever, remained in Paris. 
Six weeks later, De Precey was awakened at six o'clock 
in the morning by the curtains of his bed being drawn 
aside ; and, turning to see who it was, he perceived his 
friend. Springing out of bed, he tried to embrace him, 
to testify his joy at his return ; but Bamtouillet retreated 
a few steps, and said, caresses were misplaced ; he came 
to fulfill a promise ; that he had been slain in battle the 
preceding day, and that all that was said of a future life 
was true ; that De Precey ought to alter his present 
mode of life without delay, for he would be killed in his 
first engagement. Unable to credit his senses, the mar- 
quis again tried to embrace his friend, believing it all to 
be a joke ; but he only grasped the air : and Bamtouil- 
let, perceiving his doubts, showed him the wound which 
he had received, from which the blood appeared to flow. 
After this, the phantom disappeared; and De Precey 
awoke the whole house by his cries. Several persons, 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. Ill 

to whom he related what he had seen and heard, at- 
tributed the vision to a fevered brain, and, entreating 
him to lie down, assured him that he must have been 
dreaming. The marquis, in despair at being taken for a 
visionary, related all the above-mentioned circumstances, 
protesting he had both seen and heard his friend while 
awake ; but it was of no effect until the arrival of the 
mail from Flanders brought the announcement of the 
death of the marquis. 

" This first circumstance proving correct, in the very 
manner related by De Precey, his friends began to think 
there might be some foundation for the adventure re- 
lated ; Bamtouillet having been killed on the eve of the 
day he announced the fact, and there not having elapsed 
time enough for the information to be received by nat- 
ural means. The event was much canvassed in Paris, 
but attributed to a heated brain, in spite of the testimony 
of some who had examined the case seriously. The 
prediction was, however, shortly verified ; for on the mar- 
quis's recovery, at the commencement of the civil wars, 
he proceeded at once to the scene of action, in spite of 
the urgent entreaties of his father and mother, who 
dreaded the fulfillment of the prophecy ; and was killed 
at the battle of Saint Antoine." 

The above we present as an historical fact. As such 
we demand that it be met. It is only one of a thou- 
sand. Philosophers and scientists, such facts demand 
your attention. 

We will only add, the testimony concerning the 
anastasis of Jesus, which Peter calls infallible, is not 
half so good and well authenticated as testimony com- 



112 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

ing to earth's inhabitants every day, telling them of a 
" beyond," another side to the river of death, where 
those we mourn as lost wait with outstretched arms to 
receive us. 

" It is a faith sublime and sure, 
That ever round our head, 
Are hovering on viewless wings 
The spirits of the dead." 



CHAPTER V. 

THE BIRTH OF THE SPIRIT. 

All Subjects Important — " Ye must be born again " — Nicodemus' Quandary — A 
Minister's Opinion — Author's Objection — Jesus' Tests — Must be born out 
of Flesh — Birth of the Spirit a Resurrection — Not of Flesh and Blood — 
Bible against it (1 Cor. xv.) — Natural and Spiritual Body — Opinion of the 
Woman of Tekoah — Of Job — Of Jesus — Objections answered — Mortal 
Bodies quickened — Must eat Christ's Flesh — Job and the Worms — Job re- 
fers to his Recovery — He did see God — Scientific Arguments — Change of 
Matter — Interesting Dialogue — Is the Mind an Entity — Abraham in the 
Resurrection — Dust returning to Dust — Resurrection a Birth — Jesus born 
of the Spirit — Seen by Clairvoyants — He goes and comes like the Wind — 
His Flesh and Bones — O wasso , the Boots and the Hand — His Explanation — 
Jesus appears to Paul — Others do not see him — Test from Ananias — Jesus, 
in showing himself, demonstrated Immortality — Practical Conclusions — 
Born into the Other World of this — Future Happiness and Misery made by 
Life here — Alexander Campbell — The Grood shall shine — Spirits and 
Tobacco — Appetites may be our Hell hereafter — Admonition. 

THOUGH very popular, it is hardly just to say of any 
question, " This is important/' as such language 
implies that there are questions of no importance ; which 
is not the case. Every truth has its bearing on every 
other truth ; every truth received is a light by which 
we may be enabled to discover kindred truths ; every 
truth rejected is a light extinguished ; and darkness is 
the result. 

" Ye must be born again," is the language of Jesus 
to Nicodemus : and every one who believes his Bible 
indorses it ; the only question being, What is meant by 
being born again ? There is a difference, " wide as the 

8 113 



114 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

world,' 5 between our views and those of our Christian 
neighbors, as to what constitutes the birth of the spirit. 

Jesus, in his conference with a member of the Jewish 
senate, said, " Except a man be born again, he can not 
see the kingdom of God." This astonished Nicodemus, 
who could not see Iioav it would be possible for him, 
under the circumstances, to get into the kingdom ; for he 
w^as already an old man : and how could an old man be 
born ? Jesus answers, — 

" Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be 
born of water and of the Spirit, he can not enter into 
the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh 
is flesh ; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 
Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born 
again." — John hi. 5-7. 

Sawyer renders this, " That which is born of the 
Spirit is a spirit." 

Here the matter is explained. It is the birth of the 
Spirit that Jesus is speaking of, as much as to say, " You 
got your fleshly existence, got into this fleshly kingdom, 
by a birth of the flesh ; now, in order to enter upon your 
spiritual existence, that is, your existence where there 
is no flesh and blood, you must be born of the Spirit. 
Don't wonder that I told you you must be born again." 

" The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest 
the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, 
and whither it goeth : so is every one that is born of 
the Spirit." — John iii. 8. 

When but a boy, we once asked a minister for an 
explanation of this verse. He kindly consented to give 
us the needed light. " The birth of the Spirit," said 
he, " is nothing more nor less than conversion. All who 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 115 

are converted are born again. The Spirit is like the 
wind ; it comes and goes, and yon can not tell whence it 
comes, or whither it goes. Yon can not see the wind ; 
you see its effects, and feel it : so you can not see the 
Spirit ; but you do see and feel its operations on the 
heart." 

This is substantially the theory of the orthodox world : 
it may do as a hypothesis ; but it will not do as an ex- 
planation of this text. The text does not say, " The 
Spirit comes and goes like the wind," as this theory 
would have it, but " The wind bloweth where it listeth 
[pleaseth], and you can not tell where it comes from, or 
whither it goes : so is every one that is lorn of the 
Spirit." Thus it is the individual born of the Spirit who 
goes and comes, and you can not tell where he goes to or 
comes from. Is it so with churchmen ? Can they go 
and come without being detected, more than sinners, who 
never belonged to a church ? They can not. Then we 
must decide that they have not experienced the birth 
spoken of in this text. 

We do not deny that Christians may have experienced 
a change : no doubt they have ; but we do deny that they 
have been born again. Jesus gives another test by 
which to try those professing to be born of the Spirit. 
" That which is horn of the flesh is flesh, and that which 
is born of the Spirit is spirit" (is a spirit. — Sawyer). 
Are not churchmen flesh and blood in the same sense 
as sinners who do not belong to the church ? But those 
born of the Spirit are no longer flesh. 

" Except a man be born again, he can not see the 
kingdom of God." We might ask, Why? Paul an- 
swers, — 



116 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

" Now, this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood can not 
inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption 
inherit incorruption." — 1 Cor. xv. 50. 

This whole chapter is an argument showing the neces- 
sity of a resurrection in order to get into the kingdom 
of God, as Jesus shows the necessity of a spiritual birth 
in order to get into the kingdom. The verse above 
quoted tells why a resurrection is necessary: it is because 
" flesh and blood can not inherit the kingdom" A resur- 
rection, then, delivers us from flesh and blood : the 
birth of the Spirit does the same. For this and other 
reasons, we claim that the birth of the Spirit is the 
resurrection from the dead. 

Here, before arguing this point, we must tell what 
we mean by the term " resurrection." We do not, by 
this term, mean, as many others do, the re-collecting of 
the particles of matter, and converting them once more 
into flesh, blood, and bone, and making them live again. 
That can not be done, as we will show. By the term 
u resurrection," we mean just what the Greeks meant 
by the term anastasis, — an elevation. Sometimes they 
used the term ex-anastasis. This will be found in Phil, 
iii. 11, where Paul says, "If by any means I might 
attain unto the resurrection of the dead." The Greek 
is, ex-anastasin ton neJcron, which literally signifies, 
" resurrection out of the dead." How plain ! The body 
dies, and man is born out of it. This is the resurrec- 
tion. 

Before attempting to prove that the birth of the Spirit 
and resurrection of the dead are the same, we will show 
that the body never will be raised to life. 

No one contends that there are any scientific argu- 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 117 

ments for the resuscitation of the flesh. All science is 
confessedly against it : yet some say, " The Bible says 
so ; and, though we can not comprehend it, we believe 
God has power to bring it about." Now, we emphati- 
cally deny that the Bible, when rightly interpreted, 
teaches any such doctrine : on the other hand, it is 
squarely against it. 

The text above quoted is pointed and emphatic. If 
the kingdom of God is the state to be obtained at the 
resurrection, and " flesh and blood can not inherit the 
kingdom," then, whatever inference may be drawn 
from Paul's argument in other places, he has here posi- 
tively committed himself as an unbeliever in the resur- 
rection of the flesh. This whole chapter is worthy of 
attention : it is all devoted to this resurrection question. 
Any one who will read this chapter with the idea that 
Paul is arguing with Epicureans, who did not believe in 
any future life for man, will discover that he was simply 
arguing an existence for man beyond this mundane life, 
and not urging any particular form of resurrection, or 
definition of the term anastasis. 

Paul bases the whole argument on certain phenomena, 
which he, and about five hundred others, had witnessed. 
Christ, he argued, had been seen after his assassination ; 
therefore he was not dead. Christ lived after he was 
killed ; therefore others would live after the event called 
death. He urges that there is life for man, as evinced 
by Christ being seen alive after his death, unless the 
witnesses who testified to having seen him were false ; 
but he was seen on so many occasions, and by so many, 
that it could not have been falsehood or deception. He 
urges, further, that the witnesses were honest, as was 






118 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

proved by their jeopardizing their lives for their testi- 
mony. In 1 Cor. xv. 32, he says, — 

" If, after the manner of men, I have fought with 
beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead 
rise not ? let us eat and drink ; for to-morrow we die." 

Thus he stakes his life on his hope of a resurrection, 
and, at the same, informs his brethren that flesh and 
blood can not be raised. 

When certain ones ask, " How are the dead raised 
up ? and with what body do they come ? " he answers, 
" Thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, 
it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain ; but 
God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to 
every seed his own body." — Verses 37, 38. 

Every seed sown has God's own body. He continues 
urging that all bodies are not earthly ; that there are 
celestial as well as terrestrial bodies, and, finally, says, — 

"It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual 
body. There is a natural body, and there is a spirit- 
ual body." — Verse 44. 

All agree that a better rendering would be, " It is 
sown an animal body, it is raised a spiritual body. There 
is an animal body, and there is a spiritual body" Now 
we inhabit an animal body ; when born of the Spirit, we 
shall inhabit the spiritual body. Then will we have 
dropped " this mortal flesh," and been born into the 
higher life, called, in this text, " the kingdom of God." 

Lest some should continue, notwithstanding the posi- 
tive Scriptures we have quoted, to think that the flesh 
is to be raised from the dead, we will quote a few para- 
graphs from the " Book of books," which are so em- 
phatic, that their meaning can not be questioned. 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 119 

The wise woman of Tekoah, who went to David to 
make a plea in behalf of his rebellious son, in the course 
of her argument, said, — 

" For we must needs die, and are as water spilt on 
the ground, which can not be gathered up again ; neither 
doth God respect any person ; yet doth he devise means, 
that his banished be not expelled from him." — 2 Sam. 
xiv. 14. 

In a proper place w^e shall examine this from the phi- 
losopher's point of view. Then we shall show that this 
is literally true. That which goes to the ground can 
not be gathered up again. 

Job, when he thought himself on his death-bed, 
said, — 

" As the cloud is consumed, and vanisheth away, so 
he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more. 
He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his 
place know him any more."-— Job vii. 9, 10. 

Stronger language could not be used. How persons 
can pretend to believe the Bible, and yet argue a resus- 
citation of the flesh, in the face of such positive declara- 
tions, we can not conceive. Comments on such para- 
graphs would be like holding up a rushlight, by which 
to view the shming sun. 

Again : this same poet has said, — 

" But man dieth and wasteth away : yea, man giveth 
up the ghost, and where is he ? As the waters fail 
from the sea, and the flood decayeth and dryeth up, so 
man lieth down and riseth not : till the heavens be no 
more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their 
sleep." — Job xiv. 10-12. 

Until the heavens be no more is the longest time he 



, 



120 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

could fix. If this text is true, man never can come 
out of the grave ; for the graves where men sleep are all 
in the earth : but, when the heavens pass away, earth 
with all its graves passes too. John says, — 

" And I saw a new heaven and a new earth ; for the 
first heaven and the first earth were passed away : and 
there was no more sea." — Rev. xxi. 1. 

Again : he says, " And I saw a great white throne, 
and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and 
the heaven fled away ; and there was found no place for 
them." — Rev. xx. 11. 

Now, we submit, that if heaven, and earth with all its 
cemeteries filled with dead bodies, is gone so that it can 
not be found, and the dead are not raised out of the earth 
until after that time, as Job asserts, the chance for the 
resurrection of dead bodies is so small, that we do not 
wonder that Watts said, — 

" Great God, on what a slender thread 
Hang all eternal things ! " 

Jesus, in his conversation with the Sadducees, proves 
the doctrine of the resurrection by the fact that God 
was said to be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 
after they had been dead several hundred years. " But," 
said he, " God is not the God of the dead, but of the 
living:" so all these patriarchs are alive. His words 
are, — 

" Now that the dead are raised, even Moses showed 
at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abra- 
ham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob ; for 
he is not a God of the dead, but of the living ; for all 
live unto him." — Luke xx. 37, 38. 



, 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 121 

Now, in all candid honesty, permit us to ask our read- 
ers, Do you believe that the dead are raised, as Jesus 
asserted, and was proved to Moses by the angel in the 
bush ? or do you look forward to a time in the distant 
future when the dead shall be raised ? We assert, with- 
out fear of successful contradiction, that the doctrine of 
a physical resurrection is made for and not by the Bible. 

As the positions of our opposers on this subject can not 
well come under the head of objections, we will proceed 
to an explanation of such biblical expressions as are sup- 
posed to teach the resurrection of the body. 

Perhaps nothing in the Bible is relied on to prove the 
resurrection of the flesh more than the following : " But, 
if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead 
dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead 
shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that 
dwelleth in you." — Rom; viii. 11. 

This text says not one w^ord about the remaking and 
revivifying of dead bodies. It only speaks of the quick- 
ening of mortal bodies. There is a vast difference be- 
tween a mortal body and a dead body. Our mortal 
body has been quickened a number of times, and that 
by a spirit-power; but there never was a dead body 
raised to life. It would seem that the theory of a resur- 
rection of the animal body must be hard pressed for 
evidence when it grasps at such " straws : " truly, it 
reminds us of the proverb concerning " drowning 
men." 

" You speak," said an opponent in debate with us, 
" against the resurrection of the flesh. Job says, his flesh 
shall be raised from the dead : I believe in taking the 
Bible as it reads." 



122 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

" Very well," said we, u let us take a paragraph liter- 
ally. Jesus says, — 

" 4 1 am the living bread which came down from 
heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live for 
ever ; and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which 
I will give for the life of the world. The Jews, there- 
fore, strove among themselves, saying, How can this 
man give us his flesh to eat ? Then Jesus said unto them, 
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of 
the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in 
you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood 
hath eternal life ; and I will raise him up at the last day. 
For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink in- 
deed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood 
dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father 
hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eat- 
eth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread 
which came down from heaven : not as your fathers did 
eat manna, and are dead. He that eateth of this bread 
shall live for ever.' " — John vi. 51-58. 

Shall we all turn cannibals because Jesus said, " Ex- 
cept ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his 
blood, ye have no life in you"? It is, according to a 
strictly literal rendering of this passage, our only chance 
for salvation. If those who believe in a fleshly resurrec- 
tion could find as positive a declaration that the flesh 
should come out of the grave, as this, that Christians 
must eat the flesh and drink the blood of Jesus, with 
what eagerness would they grasp it ! Do, Christians, in 
heaven's name, be consistent ! Now, we deny that Job 
or any other Bible writer said that his flesh should 
come out of the grave : on the other hand, we have 
shown that he said just the opposite. 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 123 

Here is the text supposed to teach a physical anas- 
tasis. 

" Oh that my words were now written ! oh that they 
were printed in a book ! that they were graven with an 
iron pen and lead in the rock for ever ! for I know that 
my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the lat- 
ter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms 
destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God, whom 
I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and 
not another, though my reins be consumed within me." 
— Jobxix. 23-2T. 

If this text teaches a material resurrection, Job square- 
ly disputes in it what he said in chapters vii., xiv., and 
xvi. This we can not accuse Job of doing. This text 
has no more reference to the future of this life than 
though there was no future for man. Let it be remem- 
bered that Job was greatly afflicted at this time ; his 
friends had forsaken him, he was covered with sore boils 
from the crown of his head to the sole of his feet (see 
Job ii. 7) ; that his wife advised him to curse God and 
die (Job ii. 9). This disease was caused by an animal- 
cule preying upon his flesh : so that Job says, u My flesh 
is clothed with worms and clods of dust ; my skin is 
broken, and become loathsome." — Job vii. 5. 

In this very speech, he states that his friends, wife, 
servants, and all, had forsaken him : though he en- 
treated his wife for his children's sake, yet she turned 
against him. His bone cleaved to his skin, and he es- 
caped with the skin of his teeth. He then breaks out 
in the language just quoted, expressing his confidence 
that he will recover, though worms were consuming his 
flesh. Job did recover, and became a hearty old man. 



124 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

" Ah, but Job said, ' In my flesh shall I see God.' Did 
he see God ? " We answer most emphatically, " He did." 
The ancients saw God in bodily health and its attendant 
blessings. God was anciently in every gentle breeze, 
in the warm sunshine, the genial shower ; in fact, in 
every pleasant sensation. When God withdrew his face, 
then the storm, the blight, the mildew, and pestilence 
raged; then it was that disease preyed upon its victims. 
By and by the face of God was again seen ; and peace, 
happiness, and prosperity was the result. 

Reader, this is not imagination : we are not left to 
guess on this point. After Job's recovery, God answers 
him in such a way, that Job is convinced that he is hold- 
ing converse with the Infinite. Then Job says, — 

" I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear ; 
but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor my- 
self, and repent in dust and ashes." — Job xlii. 5, 6. 

Thus every part of the text was fulfilled without a 
resurrection. 

Now, having shown that the doctrine of a physical 
resurrection is not a Bible doctrine, we propose to take 
it from modern theologians, by showing that it is an 
impossibility, and therefore could not be true, even if 
it were taught in the Bible. 

It is now an almost universally conceded fact that the 
entire matter of the human frame changes as often as 
once in seven years. Not long since, however, it was 
our fortune to hold a public discussion with a minister, 
who pretended to some knowledge of science, who de- 
nied this fact, and, to prove himself correct in his denial, 
triumphantly stripped up his sleeve to show a scar on 
his arm that he had carried nearly forty years. 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 125 

" There," said this oracle of antiquated theology, " why 
did not that scar go when matter was passing off? " 
He might as well have asked why his eye or ear did not 
pass off with other matter. This reminds us that we 
once made the assertion that there is no inertia : every 
particle of steel in the razor-blade revolves around its 
fellow particle with all the precision that planets move 
in their courses. " Why," said an astonished opponent, 
" that is self-evidently false. I put my razor away, and 
always find it where I left it, which could not be the 
case if it were moving all the time." The poor man 
could not see the difference between particles revolving 
around each other, and razors moving off in bulk. So 
with this minister and his scar : the truth is, the scar 
had passed off several times within the period named, 
but each particle had retained its place until crowded 
out by another just like it ; so that the size and shape of 
the scar was not changed in the operation more than a 
pyramid of apples would change by a purchaser buying 
an apple from the pyramid, and the grocer dropping 
another in its place. 

For the benefit of Adventists, and all others who can 
not see any thing of man but flesh and blood, we will 
review this position at length. 

Imagine the following dialogue between an elder of 
the materialistic school, who can see no future for man 
other than by a physical resurrection, and a philosopher, 
whose researches prevent his acceptance of that theory. 

Elder, — "Man is to be raised out of the ground, 
' and the sea shall give up the dead which are in it.' ' 

Philosopher. — " How can that be, since matter is 
continually changing, and man does not, any one year of 



126 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

his life, possess the same body he had any previous year ? 
Beside, is not the spirit or mind the real man ? what need 
of a remolding and bringing to life of the flesh? " 

Eld. — " Ah, friend ! you err in two points. First, 
let me inform you that mind is not an entity, as you sup- 
pose, it is only a function of the brain. Brain grinds out 
thought. Mind is the result of the organization, and 
proper combination with the atmosphere, of the machin- 
ery called man, as the keeping of time is the result- of 
the organization and setting in motion of the machine 
called the watch. Second, that matter does not change 
as you suppose, as I will prove by a scar that I have 
earned more than forty years." 

Phil. — " As to your first position, it is either true 
or false. If true, your second argument is not needed. 
If false, your second argument will only fall of its own 
weight. If the identity of man is not preserved, there 
can be no resurrection ; possibly there could be a new 
creation. God could make a man out of every stone 
in the ' Granite State ; ' but he can not make Abraham 
or Moses out of these stones, from the fact that identity 
consists, in part at least, of the memory of past events ; 
and those men made of stones could not recognize them- 
selves as being the Abraham and Moses of old. Neither 
could the particles of matter which constituted the 
physical of Abraham and Moses at any one time be 
the same Abraham and Moses, for the reason that the 
mind of these men was the result of their organization, 
and, being dependent on the organism, could not exist 
after the physical man was disorganized." 

Eld. — " Let me interrupt you : you are partly cor- 
rect, and partly incorrect. The mind ceases to exist 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 127 

when the brain, its fountain, ceases to act ; but when 
the brain is reorganized, of course the mind, which is a 
result, begins to act as before." 

Phil. — " Not so fast. The old mind was the result 
of the old organism, and, per consequence, ceased to 
exist when the old brain ceased its action. The new mind 
is the result not of the old but of the new organism ; 
is ground out by the new brain, and, being the effect 
or function of the new brain, — made, for aught I care, 
of the old material, — can not antedate its existence. 
Memory, being a function of the mind, can not go back 
of the mind out of wdiich it proceeds ; but that mind 
was the result of the new organism : hence, the man be- 
fore death can not possibly be connected with the man 
after the resurrection." 

Eld. — " There are difficulties ; but God has power, 
and ' these dry bones shall live.' The identity is not 
preserved in the mind, as that ceases to exist, but in the 
particles of matter of which the body is composed." 

Phil. — " Then you have lost your identity even 
while you live, and at this moment are losing part of 
it ; for you are trimming your finger-nails. These nails 
are a part of the essential elder with whom I am talk- 
ing, and, if the particles are all to be raised, must come 
up in the general resurrection, and be joined to your 
fingers, lest you should lose your identity. Your hair, 
which was once short enough, got too long, and you had 
it trimmed last week. Did you know the hair taken 
off your head once went into your stomach as food, 
then went frolicking and frisking through your veins, 
and from that time forward was a part of your essential 
identity, and as such claims a part in the resurrection- 



128 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

body ? Again : in your tedious spell of typhoid fever 
last winter, you lost twenty-five pounds of flesh. Where 
did that flesh go ? It, too, claims a part in the resur- 
rection-body. Notwithstanding your friends supposed 
you would die, you recovered ; that is, all except the 
twenty-five pounds of you which died and left you. As 
soon as you became convalescent, your appetite began to 
return, you ate more heartily than before, and, as a re- 
sult, found yourself increasing in weight at the rate of 
a pound a day, until you weighed more than before 
your sickness. Where did this second twenty-five 
pounds of flesh come from ? Where Avas it while you 
were wearing the flesh you lost during your sickness ? 
Let me tell you. Part of it was in the apple-orchard, 
in the shape of unripe fruit. Some of it was in the 
garden and potato patch ; some swimming in the ocean, 
in the shape of codfish and mackerel ; some of it 
growing in the coffee and tea fields ; other portions were 
in the air, the water, &c. Now, your present flesh is 
as much a part of you as that you lost, and vice versd. 
Which will you have raised from the dead, — the first, 
or the second ? One has died, the other will die. Will 
you have both raised ? Then, why not have all the 
matter that ever formed a part of your body brought 
back to it ? Abraham lived a hundred and seventy-five 
years : that was long enough to wear out twenty-five 
bodies. Which one of these bodies shall be brought up 
from the grave ? Or shall all of them come up ? If. 
so, there will be ' giants in those days.' Abraham will 
have a beard forty feet long, and can not weigh less than 
two tons" 

Eld. — " You ask questions faster than I can answer 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 129 

them. Some questions can not be answered. We re- 
ceive certain statements because God made them, not 
because we can answer every question concerning them. 
You ask, Which one of Abraham's bodies will come to 
life ? We have an example furnished us in the resur- 
rection of our Saviour. The same body that died was 
the one raised : so it will be in the case of Abraham." 

Phil. — " But Abraham's twenty-five bodies each 
died, one no more than another. Not a particle of mat- 
ter passed from either body till the body had used up 
all the life it could appropriate, and its very death sent 
it from the body to feed the life of vegetation ; and, as 
it was resurrected in vegetation, it was eaten by animals 
and men, and, in turn, took its place in other bodies, 
ad infinitum. If you present the case of Jesus as an 
example to prove that the last body that dies, or the one 
that dies all at once, is the one to be raised, you are 
unfortunate : for the case selected proves the contrary. 
If Jesus' body that was killed came up from the grave, 
that, instead of proving that others will have a similar 
experience, proves directly the contrary. Jesus' body 
was made of what he ate, drank, and breathed ; but the 
corn that he and his disciples plucked and ate on the 
sabbath day, as well as all other food that ever went into 
his stomach, had been fattened on the dead : it drew its 
life from the decomposition of animal and vegetable 
bodies. Thus all of Jesus' body was made by the death 
of other bodies ; but his body, according to your theory, 
was brought up out of the tomb, revivified, and taken 
to heaven. 

" Now think of the general resurrection, when millions 
upon millions of bodies shall be called from their beds 

9 



130 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

of dust. Among them are the martyrs, whose bodies 
were burned to ashes, and the ashes scattered to the 
four winds by their persecutors, to prevent their resur- 
rection : thus their ashes have fattened the soil of earth, 
as our southern cattle-fields were fattened by the flesh, 
'blood, and bones of poor soldiers. This soil has pro- 
duced vegetation, which has been eaten by the c cattle 
upon a thousand hills.' The cattle, made fat upon that 
which was once flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone, 
have, in their turn, been slain and eaten up to supply 
other bodies with aliment. The fluids of these bodies 
whose solids have thus been scattered have a thousand 
times arisen in the atmosphere, and a thousand times 
been condensed, and fallen in c gentle dew and summer 
showers,' only to be evaporated to again fall to water 
the earth, wash the shores of the Atlantic, or be drunk 
by man and beast : thus these particles of matter, after 
having existed in ten thousand forms, and, for aught we 
can know to the contrary, in a thousand bodies, at the 
moment of death must be raised from the dead, when, 
to say the least, Jesus had taken part of them and gone 
to heaven ! " 

Eld. — "I must go. Good-day." 

Phil. — " Don't go yet ; I find some figures here 
made to my hand, which I wish you to hear me read : — 

" ' Dust returning to Dust. — It is asserted by sci- 
entific writers that the number of persons who have exist- 
ed on our globe since the beginning of time amounts to 
36,627,843,273,075,256. These figures, when divided 
by 3,095,000 (the number of square leagues on the 
globe), give 11,320,689,732 square miles of land; 
which, being divided as before, give 1,314,622,076 per- 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 131 

sons to each square mile. If we reduce these miles to 
square rods, the number will be 1,853,174,600,000 ; 
which, divided in like manner, w 7 ill give 1,283 inhabitants 
to each square rod, and these, being reduced to feet, will 
give about five persons to each square foot of terra firma. 
It will thus be perceived that our earth is a vast ceme- 
tery. On each square rod of it, 1,283 human beings 
lie buried; each rod being scarcely sufficient for ten 
graves, with each grave containing 128 persons. The 
whole surface of the earth, therefore, has been dug over 
128 times to bury its dead.' From this extract, it w T ill 
be seen that there is not dust enough now, if all the 
soil were converted to dust, to remake all the bodies that 
have existed on earth." 

Eld. — " These difficulties are not for me to settle : 
I only receive the Bible. If you hope to find a theo- 
logical system with no difficulties in its way, all I have 
to say is, you are having a bootless search. Good-day." 

Yes : the elder thinks he has the Bible ; and, like thou- 
sands of others who never had a liberal thought, it is 
all he asks. Those who have read this book thus far, 
can, perhaps, decide whether it is the Bible, or merely 
his ipse dixit, that teaches his peculiar views of the 
resurrection. 

Now, having shown from the Bible and science, that 
the anastasis must be a spiritual, and not a physical 
event, we will pass to our main proposition, viz., that 
the spiritual birth is the resurrection. 

The resurrection is several times said to be a birth. 
Paul says of Jesus Christ, — 

" And he is the head of the body, the church ; who 
is the beginning, the first-born from the dead, that in all 



132 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

things lie might have the pre-eminence. For it pleased 
the Father that in him should all fullness dwell." — Col. 
i. 18, 19. 

In Rev. i. 5, John says, — 

" And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, 
and the first-begotten of the dead, and the prince of the 
kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed 
us from our sins in his own blood." 

The word rendered first-begotten and first-born are the 
same ; thus we have the Bible twice asserting that Jesus 
was born from death. " But," says the objector, " Jesus 
was the first-born from the dead : how can that be, if 
every one who had died before him had experienced 
this resurrection ? " We answer, " There are two senses 
in which the word ' first ' is used ; sometimes it signifies 
the first in numerical order, and sometimes first in rank 
or importance, as, for instance, ' The lieutenant-gen- 
eral is the first military officer in the United States.' 
' The office of President is the first office in the power 
of the American people to bestow.' The word rendered 
first-born and first-begotten in these two instances is the 
Greek word prototokos, which Greenfield defines to be, 
'chief,' 'principal,' 'beloved,' &c." 

The idea of the text is not that Jesus was the first 
one born from the dead, but that he is chief among those 
who have experienced this birth. Paul gives as a rea- 
son why he was the first-born, " that in all things he 
might have the pre-eminence. For it pleased the Fa- 
ther that in him should all fullness dwell." John uses 
the term to signify that he is " prince of the kings of 
the earth." As Jesus stood in the front ranks of re- 
formers in this life, as he led their yan^ so, on the other 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 133 

side, in the kingdom to which he is now born, he occu- 
pies the front position. In this sense, and this alone, 
he is first among those born from the dead. 

Jesus gives two tests by which to try those born of 
the Spirit. 

1st, " That w^hich is born of the flesh is flesh, and that 
which is born of the Spirit is spirit." 

2d, " They who are born of the Spirit, like the wind 
go and come, and you can not tell where they go, or 
whence they come. ' ' 

Now, let us apply these rules to Jesus after his resur- 
rection. The various appearances of Jesus are enough 
to convince the candid reader that he did not bring his 
flesh up from the grave. Had his flesh been made 
alive, he could have been seen by the whole Jewish 
nation ; and thus they could have been convinced of life 
and immortality. But he was not seen by all. Peter 
says, — 

" Him God raised up the third day, and showed him 
openly ; not to all the peojrte, but unto witnesses chosen 
before of Giod, even to us, who did eat and drink with 
him after he rose from the dead." — Acts x. 40, 41. 

How could Jesus have escaped being seen by the 
multitude, had he been flesh and blood, especially if he 
was openly among them ? " Chosen witnesses " alone, 
who evidently were clairvoyant, had the privilege of 
seeing him. Mark says, — 

" After that he appeared in another form unto two of 
them, as they walked, and went into the country." — 
Mark xvi. 12. 

Physical bodies do not change their form in such a 
way as this text represents ; but clairvoyants of every 



134 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

age of the world testify that spirits do assume different 
garbs and forms to suit the occasion. 

Permit us now to devote a few words to Jesus' second 
test. Does he, after his birth from death, come and go 
in such a manner that it can not be told whence he 
comes and whither he goes ? He does. Luke says, — 

" And, behold, two of them went that same day to a 
village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about 
threescore furlongs. And they talked together of all 
these things which had happened. And it came to pass, 
that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus 
himself drew near, and went with them. But their 
eyes were holden that they should not know him. 
And he said unto them, What manner of communica- 
tions are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, 
and are sad ?•" — Luke xxiv. 13-17. 

Where did Jesus come from? The first his disciples 
knew, he was journeying with them, talking with them, 
u reasoning out of the law of Moses and the prophets." 
" But their eyes were holden that they should not know 
him." The "holding" of their eyes consisted in his 
appearing in a form that they could not recognize, as 
stated in Mark xvi. 12. 

Those born of the Spirit are not only to come in this 
mysterious manner, but they are to go quite as unac- 
countably. Luke, in this same narrative, proceeds : — 

" And they drew nigh unto the village whither they 
went ; and he made as though he would have gone fur- 
ther. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us ; 
for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And 
he went in to tarry with them. And it came to pass, 
as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed 






THE QUESTION SETTLED. 135 



it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were 
opened, and they knew him ; and he vanished out of 
their sight." — Mark xvi. 28-32. 

Here Jesus has vanished or faded out of their sight, 
as spirits vanish from the sight of media every day. 
Now he has gone, and they could not tell whither he 
went. Has he in this proved himself born of the Spirit ? 
But Luke proceeds : — 

u And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn 
within us while he talked with us by the way, and 
while he opened to us the Scriptures ? And they rose 
up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found 
the eleven gathered together, and them that were with 
them, saying, The Lord is risen indeed, and hath ap- 
peared to Simon. And they told what things were done 
in the way, and how he was known of them in break- 
ing of bread. And, as they thus spake, Jesus himself 
stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, Peace 
be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted, 
and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said 
unto them, Why are ye troubled ? and why do thoughts 
arise in your hearts ? Behold my hands and my feet, 
that it is I myself. Handle me and see ; for a spirit hath 
not flesh and bones as ye see me have. And, when he 
had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet. 
And while they yet believed not for joy, and wondered, 
he said unto them, Have ye here any meat ? And they 
gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of a honeycomb. 
And he took it, and did eat before them." — Mark xvi. 
32-43. 

One point in this, that of fastening the doors, we will 
leave John to bring to light. It is enough for us at 



136 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 



Ley- 



present to know, that, when they first saw Jesus, they 
only saw dim, shadowy outlines ; for it is not until 
Jesus calls attention to his hands and feet, that they saw 
them. 

"Ah," said Elder G , "you have the wrong 

text here ; for he was not a spirit, as his disciples sup- 
posed, and as you suppose ; but he had flesh and hones : 
so the text is positive proof of the physical resurrection." 

Not so fast. If the rendering of the text is correct, 
the disciples supposed they had seen a spirit, which is 
positive proof that they believed not only in the exist- 
ence of spirits, but that they could return, and make 
themselves manifest. So far, we will set the text down 
as a positive proof of Spiritualism. 

Now for a few words of criticism. If the reader will 
turn to the margin of Greenfield's Greek Testament, or 
to Griesbach's Greek Testament, he will find the word 
rendered " spirit," in this instance, is not the womdi pneu- 
ma, which is rendered " spirit " more than a hundred 
times in the New Testament, but phantasma, which is 
defined to be a phantom ; that is, an appearance, some- 
thing not real, some such spirit as the drunkard sees 
when he has the delirium tremens. With this inter- 
pretation, which no scholar will dispute, Jesus does not 
deny being a spirit : he only denies being a phantom, 
"the stuff that dreams are made of." "But he claims 
to have flesh and bones, so he must have had a physical 
body." No, dear reader : you have not read that cor- 
rectly. He does not claim to have flesh and bones, but 
claims to appear to have them. The text does not say, 
" A spirit has not flesh and bones as I have," but " as 
ye see me have." The word rendered "see " in this in- 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 137 

stance is theosia, a word which signifies an appearance, 
and not a reality. The idea of the text is, that the 
flesh and bones were not a reality, but an appearance 
for the occasion. Do you ask how this can be ? We 
frankly acknowledge we can not tell : we only know, 
from this text and from experience, that it is so. 

It has been our good fortune to travel some with Dr. 
Henry Slade, an individual whom we can recommend 
anywhere as being a medium through whom satisfac- 
tory evidence of immortality can be given to any honest 
inquirer. Early in the month of October, 1864, we 
staid all night with the doctor at the Waverley House 
in Rochester, N. Y. The moon was shining brilliantly ; 
and the windows and blinds, in consequence of the ex- 
cessively warm evening, were opened. Not long after 
we had been in bed, the manifestations, as usual, com- 
menced. Soon we saw our boots walking about the room 
with no visible feet or legs in them. We at once 
addressed the power thus propelling things about the 
room, and said, — 

" I have seen your manifestations often. I know 
you exist, I know you have power ; but why do you 
never let me see you ? I want to see the power by 
which these wonderful things are done." 

The intelligent power to whom we addressed this 
language said, " I will try. If conditions are such that 
I can gather a body from the elements, I will let you 
see me." We waited long and patiently for the prom- 
ised manifestation. By and by, however, we heard 
a strange sound, and looked in the direction whence 
it proceeded, and saw a hand and arm coming toward 
us. We raised up in bed, reached out our hand and 



138 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

took hold of the hand, grasped it with a firm grip, de- 
termined to hold on, and, if possible, keep it as a trophy. 
It was to all appearance flesh and bone ; at least we 
would have sworn it to be just such a hand as our own, 
only very much darker, and at least one-third longer. 
Soon we discovered that the arm began to grow shorter. 
As we saw it vanishing, as Jesus did from his disci- 
ciples, we grasped the fingers more firmly ; but, notwith- 
standing our determination, the arm, then the hand, 
then the fingers, dissolved, leaving us to grasp the air. 

In a moment, the Indian was laughing at us, and said, 
" You didn't hold the hand, did you? " 

" No," said we ; " but we would like to know how you 
did that." He responded, " I tried to gather a body 
from the elements ; but conditions were not favorable : 
I could only gather a hand and arm." Now, when this 
phenomenon is explained, we can explain Jesus' pro- 
ducing hands and feet that could be seen and felt. 

We must record one more sentence from Luke con- 
cerning Jesus : " And he led them out as far as to Beth- 
any ; and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them. And 
it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted 
from them, and carried up into heaven." — - Luke xxiv. 
50, 51. 

Here Jesus was parted from the disciples in a way 
that physical bodies are not separated from each other. 
He was born of the Spirit. John says, " Then the same 
day, at evening, being the first day of the week, when 
the doors were shut where the disciples were assem- 
bled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus, and stood in the 
midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you; and 
when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands 






TEE QUESTION SETTLED. 139 

and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they 
saw the Lord'' (John xx. 19, 20). Again: "And 
after eight days, again his disciples were within, and 
Thomas with them : then came Jesus, the doors being 
shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto 
you. 5 ' — Verse 26. 

Here the doors were shut against the Jews, fastened 
to keep them out ; but Jesus appeared hi the midst of a 
room fastened to keep intruders out. How does he get 
there ? It is all told in one sentence, He was born of 
the Spirit ; like the wind he could go and come unper- 
ceived by mortal vision. 

With one more appearance of the man of Nazareth, 
we will take our leave of this department of this 
subject. 

" And, as he journeyed, he came near Damascus ; 
and suddenly there shine d round about him a light from 
heaven. And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice 
saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ? 
And he said, Who art thou, Lord ? And the Lord said, 
I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest : it is hard for thee 
to kick against the pricks. And he, trembling and as- 
tonished, said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? 
And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, 
and it shall be told thee what thou must do. And the 
men which journeved with him stood speechless, hear- 
ing a voice, but seeing no man. And Saul arose from 
the earth ; and, when his eyes were opened, he saw no 
man : but they led him by the hand, and brought him 
into Damascus." — Acts ix. 8-8. 

Here was a spirit-light, here were spirit- voices, and 
Jesus was seen by Paul, but not by those who were 



140 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

• 
with liim. Paul was one of the " chosen witnesses " to 

whom ." he showed himself alive after his passion." 

This event occurred several years after the assassination 

of Jesus. Ananias, in referring to these phenomena, 

says, — 

" Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared 
unto thee in the way as thou earnest, hath sent me, that 
thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the 
Holy Ghost."— Acts ix. 17. 

The testimony is positive : what more can be required ? 
Jesus was born of the Spirit. After his appearance on 
so many occasions, under so many circumstances, and 
presenting again and again such varied and unmistaka- 
ble evidence of a life after death, who can but agree 
with Paul when he says, — 

" But is now made manifest by the appearance of our 
Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and 
hath brought life and immortality to light through the 
gospel."— 2 Tim. i. 10. 

If his numerous appearances have not been enough 
to demonstrate immortality to those who saw him, they 
are beyond the reach of evidence. 

If the foregoing is true, and its truth can not be ques- 
tioned by the believer in the Bible, each one at death 
is born into another world, — born with the education, 
ability, and experience obtained in this. Who has not 
thought, as he has grown old, and worn himself out in 
learning the lessons of life, " If I could only be placed 
back to the days of my childhood, with the experience 
I have gained in this world, what a man I would be by 
the time I arrived at my present age a second time ! " 
Take, for example, such statesmen as Daniel Webster 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 141 

and Henry Clay, men who spent a lifetime in picking 
up an education : must such enter the spirit-world as ig- 
norant as an infant of days ? Alexander Campbell spent 
a lifetime in gathering pebbles from the ocean of knowl- 
edge, until, finally, he gained the best knowledge of the 
Bible, its history, the country where it originated, the 
people among whom it originated, and all connected 
with it, of any person we ever met who viewed it 
from his standpoint. When he died, did that knowledge 
die ? Did he live more than eighty years to pick up a 
few of the lessons of life, and then die and forget all ? 
No. He lived long; enough to learn well some things 
pertaining to man, and then was born again, — born 
into a better, higher life, in a country where he could 
use the knowledge he pursued so ardently in this 
world. 

Not only is the resurrection a birth, but all are born 
into the other life with the peculiarities which attached 
to them in this. Paul teaches, that as there are differ- 
ent kinds of flesh, as there is one glory of the sun, 
and another of the moon, as star differeth from star 
in glory, so is the resurrection of the dead. Daniel 
says, — 

" And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness 
of the firmament ; and they that turn many to right- 
eousness, as the stars for ever and ever." — Dan. xii. 3. 

In the world beyond, no one shines with a borrowed 
light. Each one in the hereafter reflects what his life 
here makes him there. This is exhibited in no one place 
as prominently as in spirit manifestations. Take, for 
example, those in the Bible. Elijah the prophet, while 
on earth, was always cursing ; cursed Ahab, cursed Jeze- 



142 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

bel, cursed over four hundred of his fellow prophets. 
He was as perfect a misanthrope as ever lived : he lived 
the life of a hermit, preferring the society of wild beasts 
and ravens to men and women. By and by he passed 
to the spirit-world, and it seemed to be his mission to curse 
after he got there. The written communication which 
he gave to King Jehoram seemed to be as full of de- 
nunciation as any thing he could have written with his 
own hand or uttered through his own organism while 
upon earth. When he influenced John the Baptist, he 
made him manifest all of his idiosyncrasies, even to that 
of making his home in the wilderness, and denouncing 
everybody to whom he preached; insomuch that the 
Bible hardly needs to state that " he shall go out in the 
spirit and power of Elias." 

We have witnessed the same in modern manifesta- 
tions. Many have made merry because spirits have in- 
fluenced modern media, and made them beg for tobacco 
and whisky ; but it is a solemn truth, and one against 
which we should not close our eyes, that those who are 
slaves to tobacco and whisky here, must, hereafter, be 
tormented in the flame of that appetite. 

O reader ! could you realize this as we see it and 
know it, you would strive ardently to overcome the 
baser parts of your nature now. Do, we beseech you, 
think of the question, Must I, when I return from, the 
"land of the so-called dead," to influence media, make 
them call for tobacco and whisky? Must I have that 
longing follow me through many years of spirit-life? 
Must I be set back years and years in the hereafter by 
ungoverned appetites and passions ? Must I enter the 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 143 

other world a slave to sin, and spend years of eternity 
in fighting that I never resisted in this life ? 

Angels help you to realize these things, and assert 
your manhood now, so that, when the time comes for 
you to be born into the higher life, you may enter man- 
sions prepared by your daily devotion to duty here. 



CHAPTER VI. 

ARE WE INFIDELS? 

Rapid Growth of Spiritualism — The " Mad-Dog" Cry — Charge ignored — Pro- 
ceeds from Infidel Hearts — Truths and Errors in the Bible — Dialogue; 
Minister wants a Bible — All believe Parts, and no one believes All, of the 
Bible — Illustrative Cases — How shall we decide who the Believers are — 
The true Test — Works — The Commission — End of the World not yet — 
Jewish and Christian Age — Preaching, Baptism, and Signs go together — Is 
Christ in the Church — Signs follow; did Jesus tell the Truth — The Day 
of Pentecost — Holy Ghost, Definition of — Opinion of Opposers — Peter's 
Explanation — "What shall we do" — This Power for all — Abrahamic 
Promise — Holy Ghost for all — Gifts not to cease — Churches acknowledge 
some of the Gifts — Covet the Best Gifts — When will the Gifts cease — Ad- 
vice of James — Elijah's Prayer and the Rain; two Positions — Mind will 
control Matter — All Things under Man — A Lightning-Tamer — Philosophy 
of Rain'— Rain on Battle-Fields, &c. — Yankee Climate-Regulators — Sick 
Lady — A Dialogue — God not changed by Prayer — Effect of Prayer — 
Sickness the Result of Sin — Prayer and its Equivalent— Philosophy of Dis- 
ease and Cure — Impressions Mental and Physical — Philosophy of vomit- 
ing — Disease created and removed by Impressions on the Mind — Death 
from Excitement — Whence the Power of Volition — Spirit- Writing — Cause 
of Paralysis — Positive and Negative Disease — Philosophy of Controling a 
Patient — Electric Currents pass from the Nerves of one to another — The 
Spirit- World supplies the Operator — Author's Experience in healing — 
Cause of Failures — Jesus sometimes failed — His Disciples do — Author 
has been healed — Blind see, Deaf hear, &c. — Statement of Abraham 
Clarke — Letter to "The New- York Dispatch" — Peter Manning's Case — 
Another Dialogue — The Devil did it — Devil not so good, after all —Another 
Evidence — Jesus' Logic — Was his Mission divine — Coming of Christ 
— Symbolic Clouds and Horses — Death has lost its Sting — Challenge — 
World's Convention. 

SPIRITUALISM has stood before the world and 
claimed a hearing at its bar for twenty-one years. 
It has, in that space of time, succeeded -in getting such 
a hearing as no other religion has ever obtained. We 

144 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 145 

do not mean that no other religion ever gained such a 
hearing in twenty-one years as Spiritualism ; but we do 
mean, that, though it is only twenty-one years since the 
attention of the American people has been called to 
Spiritualism as a religious system, it now has such a 
hold of the popular heart as has not been obtained by 
any other religious system. Indeed, it is the spiritual 
element contained in the churches and other organiza- 
tions, that has held them together thus far. 

A play is not worthy of going before the public, 
unless Spiritualism forms an important part of its attrac- 
tions. A novel must embody Spiritualism in some 
form, or its publishers will never get their pay for print- 
er's ink and paper. A poem is hardly read, unless, in 
some manner, it gives utterance to the all-absorbing 
sentiment of Spiritualism. 

Spiritualism has not only made a few millions of con- 
verts, but it is working its way into the popular heart as 
none of the creedal systems of the day can. Once the 
churches said, " Let it alone ! it will die of itself, and 
scarcely a grease-spot of it will remain." But that 
grease-spot has spread far and wide through the texture 
of human life. The "let alone doctrine," as it was 
called, would not work ; and so the churches have decid- 
ed to imitate the example of the Quaker, who, having 
a spite against a dog, said, " It is wrong for me to kill 
thee, but I will give thee a bad name, and let thee go ; " 
and forthwith he cried out, " Mad dog!" so effectually, 
that oiliers pursued the animal and dispatched him. 

The mad-dog cry now raised after Spiritualism is 
" Infidelity." It is now conceded on all hands that 
Spiritualism can not be killed. Like " Banquo's ghost," 



10 



146 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

it obstinately refuses to " down," even though bid to do 
so by churches and ministers. There is no alternative 
left but to fall in with it, or give reasons for rejecting it. 
As no reasons can be given that will satisfy the reasoner, 
the only course left for them is to deal in ad eaptandum 
vulgus : so they have raised the cry of " Infidelity ! " 

Spiritualists and Spiritualism have pursued " the even 
tenor of their ways," paying but little attention to the 
charges brought against it ; knowing that they, for the 
most part, originate in an incapacity to comprehend its 
sublime truths. 

Now we propose, in this chapter, to review the infi- 
delity charge ; and may we commence by saying it is 
a slanderous libel, made, often, for no other purpose than 
to disguise the infidelity of the heart whence it pro- 
ceeds? It does happen that persons sometimes think 
they are looking at others, when they are only looking 
into a mirror, and seeing themselves reflected. That 
this is the case with those w T ho accuse Spiritualism of 
being infidelity, we intend now to prove. 

In order to follow out this course, we must have a 
rule by which the matter may be decided. Such a rule 
we believe we have found. There is not one person in 
the world who believes all that is contained in the 
Bible. If we were to take a lighted candle, and search 
through modern Christianity, we should not find one 
who believes it all. The infidel says, " I do not believe 
the errors in the Bible." — " Neither do I" says the 
Christian. Upon that ground, they meet in common. 
We read, and all Christians and infidels believe as we 
read, " The grass withereth, the flower thereof fail- 
eth ; " but, when we see it recorded that Ahaziah was 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 147 

two years older than his father, the fact is denied by 
every one as a natural impossibility. Christians and 
infidels agree, that a man can not be older than his 
father. Therefore, one of the texts all allow to be true, 
and the other all reject as false. 

The above is sufficient to illustrate that no one be- 
lieves all the Bible. Every one believes some of it. 
How, then, shall we tell who the true believers are? 

This case can be illustrated by an incident in our own 
history. Once upon a time, we engaged in conversa- 
tion with a minister, who took occasion to admire a 
copy of the Bible then in our hand, when the following 
dialogue ensued : — 

Minister. — " That is a very fine Bible you have, — 
just such as I have always wanted ; but I never could 
get hold of one. How much will you take for it ? " 

Hull. — " The book is not for sale. I bought it in 
Canada for my own use, and I do not know that I could 
get another without going there for it ; and that would 
be hard to do in these war times." 

Min. — "I will pay you twice what your Bible cost 
you for it : that will pay you for using a poorer one, or 
waiting until you can get another like this." 

H. — " The truth is, I can not spare this book. I 
have kept it until it is filled with my own magnetism ; 
and it would be too much like parting with a part of 
myself" 

.Min. — u Now, see here. You don't believe the Bible : 
why can't you let me have this one ? " 

II. — " Would you take away the last Bible I have, 
because I do not believe it ? Is there any evidence of 
the truth of the Bible ? If so, where should it be found 



148 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

but in the Bible itself? Surely not in Lardner, Horn, 
Watson, Paley, or Mcllvaine. Where are the evi- 
dences of geology but in the earth ? To what book 
but to the starry heavens do you go for your evidences 
of astronomy ? Now, reverse the matter : let me be the 
believer, and you the unbeliever, and I would give you 
the book, asking no other reward, only that you would 
investigate its pages, and try to ascertain their truth. 
But, my brother, it is easy for one party to accuse an- 
other of infidelity. Now, I believe part of the Bible, 
and part of it I do not believe. Part you believe, and 
part you do not believe. Parts of it I believe, that you 
do not ; parts of it you believe, that I do not ; and parts 
of it we both believe, and parts of it we both reject." 

Min. — " I do not wish to get into a discussion with 
you, sir : when you reply to a book which you yourself 
have written on that subject, it will be time for me to 
debate with you." 

H. — " But the book you ask me to answer admits 
there are errors in the Bible, and that is all I now claim. 
There is a text in this Bible which says, — 

" ' For there are three that bear record in heaven, the 
Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost ; and these three 
are one ' (1 John v. 7). Do you believe that text ? " 

Min. — u No : that is an error. Dr. Clark says it is 
not in the oldest manuscripts. It was perhaps inserted 
by St. Augustine, merely as a glossary, but was copied 
by an ignorant transcriber into the text." 

H. — "I am not now inquiring how errors got into that 
book. You acknowledge this text to be an error, and 
that is all I claim: so your Christianity and my infidelity 
are exactly alike on that text. There is another text 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 149 

that says, Samuel, after he had been dead some months, 
said to Saul, 4 Why hast thou disquieted me to bring me 
up ? ' Do you believe Samuel did visit Saul, and use 
such words? " 

Min. — " No, I — I — I think — well, the Devil per- 
sonated Samuel. He is a great deceiver ; beside, the 
Bible plainly says, ' The dead know not any thing.' 
Samuel, being dead, could not have been there." 

H. — " Very well. Your belief says the text is false : 
my unbelief says it is true" 

Min. — "I prefer not to talk with you on these sub- 
jects. You know that a positive, ' Thus saith the Bible,' 
on any subject, in the absence of any other testimony, is 
not enough to convince you of the truth of a position. 
It would convince me : so that settles the question." 

H. — " Perhaps it does. There is a positive declara- 
tion in 2 Kings viii. 26, which says, — 

" ' Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he 
began to reign ; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. 
And his mother's name was Athaliah, the daughter of 
Omri, King of Israel.' Do you believe that ? " 

Min. — " Let me see that text. Yes : the Bible says 
so, and I believe it. Do you believe it ? " 

II. — " I do not know whether I believe it or not." 

Min. — a There, that fixes jthe whole question. You 
acknowledge the Bible reads just as you have quoted ; 
but, because you have no corroborative evidence, you do 
not know as you believe it. I know it is true, because 
the Bible says so." 

H. — " Here is another text I will ask you if you 
believe. It says, — 

u ' Forty and tivo years old was Ahaziah when he began 



150 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His 
mother's name also was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri ' 
(2 Chron. xxii. 2). Do you believe that ? " 

Min. — u Wha — wha — what does that text say? 
Let me see it." 

H. — " It says he was forty-two years old at the time 
the other text sets him down at twenty-two. He could 
not have been forty-two and twenty-two at the same 
time ; and you have committed yourself to the former 
text : in doing so, you committed yourself against the 
latter ; so your amount of fidelity over mine in one in- 
stance is made up by your amount of infidelity over 
mine in the other. The statement concerning Jehoram, 
the father of Ahaziah, is, — 

" ' Thirty and two years old was he when he began to 
reign ; and he reigned in Jerusalem eight years, and 
departed without being desired.' — 2 Chron. xxi. 20. 

" Now, if Jehoram reigned eight years, and was thirty- 
two at his ascending the throne, he was only forty years 
old at his death ; and his youngest son, Ahaziah, was 
forty-two : that makes the youngest son only two years 
older than his father. There are a great many sons in 
6 Young America ' more than that much older than their 
parents." 

This minister was " one of a thousand." It will 
always be found that the man who believes so much of 
the Bible, and finds nothing but infidelity in the opin- 
ions of others, is one who either has no comprehension 
of the opinions of others, or knows but little of what the 
Bible contains. Now, since no one believes all of the 
Bible, and every one believes some of it, how will it be 
settled as to who the believers are ? Shall we tell them 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 151 

by the length of their prayers, or by the length of their 
faces ? Will their haying attached their name to a 
religious creed be sufficient to prove them believers, or 
must we decide by the sacredness they attach to certain 
days of the week, or the rigor with which they enforce 
certain religious ceremonies ? None of these rules will 
do. There are thousands of baptized infidels to-day. 

Jesus has laid down a rule by which to test this mat- 
ter. He says, — 

" Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that belie veth on 
me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater 
works than these shall he do, because I go unto my 
Father."-— John xiv. 12. 

This language can not easily be misinterpreted. Jesus 
set out to tell us who believers are. He does not test 
them by their professions, by forms or ceremonies, but 
by their ivorks. Christians, are you willing to be 
tested thus ? " He that believeth shall do the ivorks that 
I do ; " yea, even greater works. Did Jesus, or did he 
not, tell the truth ? Do you, or do you not, believe ? 
Will you do yourselves the favor to heed Paul's admo- 
nition? — 

" Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith ; 
prove your own selves." — 2 Cor. xiii. 5. 

James says, — 

u Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have 
works ; show me thy faith without thy works, and I will 
show thee my faith by my works." — James ii. 18. 

These Scriptures can not be misunderstood. You are 
not only admonished to " prove yourselves," but told 
how, — show your faith by your works. What works ? 
" The works that I do, and even greater, shall he do." 



152 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

We ask again, Do you believe ? Oh, would that we 
had the power to ring the question in every ear ! 

After Jesus' anastasis, he said to his disciples, — 

"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing 
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of 
the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things 
whatsoever I have commanded you ; and lo, I am with 
you alway, even unto the end of the world." — Matt. 
xxviii. 19, 20. 

Here Christ promised to be with his disciples. This 
means something. He is not going to be with them and 
not make himself manifest. The only way the Church 
can know that Christ is with them is by certain mani- 
festations. Mark records the fulfillment of this promise 
in his day as follows : — 

"And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the 
Lord working with them, and confirming the word with 
signs following." — Mark xvi. 20. 

When Paul and Barnabas preached at Iconium, Luke 
says, — 

" Long time, therefore, abode they, speaking boldly in 
the Lord, which gave testimony unto the word of his 
grace, and granted signs and wonders to be done by 
their hands." — Acts xiv. 3. 

The text does not promise to be with the disciples 
merely to the end of their generation, but " always, even 
to the end of the world" Though many are looking for 
the end of the world very soon, and almost innumerable 
times have been set for old Father Time to cease his 
rounds, he, not daunted in the least by the notices that 
he will cease to bring the seasons around, trudges along 
as usual. Then Christ is to work with his disciples yet, 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 153 

or the text is not true. Does he do it? Is there a 
church to-day that has the signs by which to prove that 
Christ is with it ? Said a minister to us, " If the word 
6 world ' signified all time, as you seem to think, your re- 
marks would be just ; but the Greek word aion, rendered 
fc world ' in this instance, only signifies age or dispensa- 
tion. This language was used in the Jewish, and not in 
the Christian age ; therefore it onlv means that Christ 
will be with his disciples to the end of the Jewish dispen- 
sation." " When did the Jewish age end, and the Chris- 
tion age commence ? " we asked. " On the day of Pen- 
tecost," was his reply. Very well, the preaching did 
not commence until the day of Pentecost. They were 
not to set out immediately on their mission. Luke says, 
that Jesus, after giving their commission to preach, 
said, — 

" And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon 
you ; but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be 
endued with power from on high." — Luke xxiv. 49. 

This enduement came on the day of Pentecost, the 
very time where the beginning of the Christian dispen- 
sation is located. Jesus is to work with his disciples to 
the end of the dispensation where the preaching is to be 
done. Is the command to preach binding yet? and are 
persons now baptized in obedience to this text ? Then, 
if Jesus is not with the Church to-day, it is either because 
he did not tell the truth, or its members are infidels. 

A representative of modern infidelity, falsely called 
theology, informed us that Christ was with the Church 
until it was established : from that time forward, he had 
not been with it. This was admitting the whole ground : 
their Church was composed of Christless infidels ! 



154 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

Mark represents Jesus as saying, — 

" And these signs shall follow them that believe : in 
my name shall they cast out devils ; they shall speak 
with new tongues ; they shall take up serpents, and, if 
they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them ; they 
shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." — 
Mark xvi. 17, 18. 

Here again the language is positive and emphatic. 
u These signs shall follow them that believe." There 
is no promise in the case. Do the signs follow those 
who accuse Spiritualists of infidelity ? If not, are 
they not, when they make such charges, speaking of the 
abundance of their own infidel hearts ? 

The disciples were requested to tarry at Jerusalem 
until they were endued with power from on high. They 
did so. On the fortieth day after they first saw Jesus after 
his martyrdom, they saw him for the last time. They 
then formed what Spiritualists call a circle in an upper 
room in the city ; and there they sat for ten days, waiting 
for this power. At the end of that time, they began to 
have manifestations, such as are of common occurrence 
among modern Spiritualists. The writer of the Book of 
Acts describes it thus : — 

" And, when the day of Pentecost was fully come, 
they were all with one accord in one place. And sud- 
denly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing 
mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were 
sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues 
like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they 
were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak 
with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. 
And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 155 

men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when 
this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, 
and were confounded, because that every man heard 
them speak in his own language. And they were all 
amazed, and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, 
are not all these which speak Galileans ? And how 
hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were 
born ?" — Acts ii. 1-8. 

Here is a foreign power lighting upon the disci- 
ples in cloven, or a diversity of tongues, literally split 
tongues ; that is, tongues that speak a number of lan- 
guages. These illiterate Galilean fishermen fluently 
speak seventeen different languages, not one of which 
they understand. The power thus using these mediums 
is called u the Holy Ghost ;" that is, pneumatos hagion. 
One of the definitions which Greenfield gives the w T ord 
pneumatos is " human souls ; " and we know of no 
better definition of the word hagion than " good." A 
" spirit power lights upon them, that the Bible designates 
as the good spirit." Whose spirit it was we do not 
know. Of two things we are sure: first, it fulfills the 
Christ prediction, " I am with you ;" second, it was just 
such a power as works on modern media. 

These manifestations of course astonish the people, 
who were worshiping dead forms and ceremonies, in- 
stead of having any living evidence of their religion. 

" And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, say- 
ing one to another, What meaneth this ? Others, mockr 
ing, said, These men are full of new wine." — Acts ii. 
12, 13. 

This last charge brings Peter to his feet. Here the 
gospel commences : — 



156 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

" Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusa- 
lem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words ; 
for these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but 
the third hour of the day. But this is that which was 
spoken by the prophet Joel : And it shall come to pass 
in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit 
upon all flesh ; and your sons and your daughters shall 
prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and 
your old men shall dream dreams : and on my servants 
and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days 
of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy." — Acts ii. 
14-18. 

This is a complete refutation of those Jewish rab- 
bis. Peter thoroughly exposes their theory of the men 
being under the influence of wine. It was too early an 
hour. The wine they drank then was not such drink as 
men indulge in now-a-days. Men could drink all day, 
and by nightfall they would begin to be intoxicated : 
hence the proverb, " They that are drunken, are 
drunken in the night." Beside, w T ine does not teach 
men seventeen different languages they never heard. 
After refuting the position of these exposers of ancient 
spirit-manifestations, Peter proceeds to state his own, 
which is, that this is a fulfillment of a certain predic- 
tion. His reasonings so perfectly commend them- 
selves to the people, that they are convinced, and at 
once cry out, ^ What shall we do?" Do for w T hat? 
we ask. u To be saved," nearly the whole world re- 
sponds. Not a bit of it. They, in this question, had 
no more idea of salvation than they had of going into 
Noah's ark. No : they had witnessed certain phenomena ; 
and they were interested in knowing Jiow they could ]be 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 157 

produced. Now the question is, What shall we do to 
have the power manifest here ? Peter's answer is perti- 
nent : — 

u Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized, 
every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the 
remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy 
Grhost. For the promise is unto you, and to your chil- 
dren, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the 
Lord our Grod shall call" — Acts ii. 38, 39. 

It was the gift of the Holy Ghost that enabled the dis- 
ciples to work the wonders which were exciting the 
people. Now, Peter tells them they can have the same 
power on certain conditions : " for the promise is to 
them ; not to them only, but to their children ; and not 
them alone, but all that are afar off, even as many as 
the Lord our God shall call." 

A kind friend once volunteered to enlighten us upon 
this subject. " This promise made to them and their 
children et al." said he, " was the Abrahamic promise." 
The promise made to Abraham w-as in the following 
words : — 

" And the Lord said unto Abram, after that Lot was 
separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look 
from the place where thou art, northward and southward, 
and eastward and westward ; for all the land which thou 
seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. 
And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth, so 
that, if a man can number the dust of the earth, then 
shall thy seed also be numbered." — Gen. xiii. 14-16. 

What reference this text could have to this promise 
it would take at least a divine to imagine. No: here is 
the promise : — 



158 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

" Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, 
and having received of the Father the promise of the 
Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see 
and hear." — Acts ii. 33. 

Now, this promise of the Holy Ghost is to all who 
are called ; but the Holy Ghost enables those under its 
power to do what was done on the day of Pentecost. 

" But," says the objector, u these signs were to cease." 
Then all the Scriptures quoted in this chapter thus far 
are false. Here we venture the assertion, that not an 
argument, except the fact that the churches do not enjoy 
the gifts, can be brought to prove that they should have 
ceased : that, instead of proving the gifts should cease, 
proves the relapse of the Church into infidelity. Churches 
themselves do not believe in the cessation of all the gifts. 
In Rom. xii. 6-8, Paul says, — 

" Having, then, gifts differing according to the grace 
that is given us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy ac- 
cording to the proportion of faith ; or ministry, let us 
wait on our ministering ; or he that teacheth, on teach- 
ing, or he that exhorteth, on exhortation : he that 
giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, 
with diligence ; he that showeth mercy, with cheer- 
fulness." 

The gifts all go together ; yet the Church denies the 
gift of prophecy, and acknowledges that of the ministry, 
teaching, and exhortation. 

In 1 Cor. xii. 7-11, Paul says, " But the manifesta- 
tion of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. 
For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom ; 
to another, the word of knowledge by the same Spirit ; 
to another, faith by the same Spirit ; to another, the gifts 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 159 

of healing by the same Spirit; to another, the working 
of miracles ; to another, prophecy ; to another, discern- 
ing of spirits ; to another, divers kinds of tongues ; to 
another, the interpretation of tongues : but all these 
worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to 
every man severally as he will." 

Does Paul tell the truth ? If so, every man is enti- 
tled to some form of the manifestation of the Spirit. 
One would think, by the way opposition to spirit-mani- 
festations rages in the Church, that that, too, was a gift 
of the Spirit. Here, this Spirit that gives the power to 
teach and preach the word to one gives to another the 
power to heal the sick ; to another, the power to proph- 
esy; another, the power to work miracles (marvels); 
another, the discerning (seeing and describing) of 
spirits ; and to another, the power to speak in foreign 
languages. 

But Paul continues : " And God hath set some in the 
church; first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teach- 
ers ; after that miracles ; then gifts of healings, helps, 
governments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles ? 
are all prophets ? are all teachers ? are all workers of 
miracles ? have all the gifts of healing ? do all speak 
with tongues? do all interpret? But covet earnestly 
the best gifts ; and yet show I unto you a more excel- 
lent way/'— 1 Cor. xii. 28-31. 

The Church now has its teachers, helps, and govern- 
ments ; then why deny it the other gifts mentioned in 
this chapter, which it has an equal right to claim ? Nay, 
why charge infidelity upon the only people in the world 
who, by the exercise of spiritual powers, prove them- 
selves legitimate Christians? 



160 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

Ill chap. xiv. 1, Paul admonishes his brethren to 
u follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts ." 

But the Church, having lost both charity and gifts, 
spends its time in ardently wishing others were in 
equally as doleful a situation. Truly, the words of the 
Judsean reformer, " The kingdom shall be taken from 
you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits 
thereof," are more literally fulfilled than many ima- 
gine. Verse twelve of this same chapter, instead of 
teaching that the gifts shall cease, admonishes Christians 
to " be zealous of spiritual gifts, and seek to excel." 

u But there is a text somewhere," said an objector, 
" that teaches that the gifts shall cease." Yes : there is 
just one. Here it is : — 

u Charity never faileth ; but, whether there be prophe- 
cies, they shall fail ; whether there be tongues, they shall 
cease ; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 
For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But, 
when that which is perfect is come, then that which is 
in part shall be done away." — 1 Cor. xiii. 7-10. 

Here the matter is stated clearly. " When that 
which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall 
be done away." When 

" Hope shall change to glad fruition, 
Faith to sight, and prayer to praise," 

then, and not till then, will the gifts cease. While 
there are sick, the gift of healing will remain ; while 
persons do not all understand one language, the power 
to speak in others will remain. Until then, if the gifts 
cease, it is because of infidelity. 

We will now turn our attention to one particular de- 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 161 

partment of this subject. We will select that of heal- 
ing. James says, — 

" Is any sick among you ? let him call for the elders 
of the church ; and let them pray over him, anointing 
him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer 
of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him 
up ; and, if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven 
him." — James v. 14, 15. 

Christians, you who take the Bible for the rule of 
your faith and practice, do you follow James's injunc- 
tion ? Will you ? Dare you undertake to show your 
faith by your works ? James did not counsel to send 
for a doctor : an ancient Christian would as soon think 
of sending for a lawyer as a doctor. " Send for the 
elders," is the injunction; let them pray for him: the 
prayer of faith shall save the sick. Is there faith 
enough in all professed Christendom to save one patient ? 

But James continues to argue the case : — 

" Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, 
and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain ; and it 
rained not on the earth by the space of three years and 
six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven 
gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit." — 
James v. 17, 18. 

James's argument in reference to the sick is based on 
the fact that Elijah controlled the elements. This he did, 
or the statement made here, and in 1 Kings xvii. 1, is 
not true. There is only one of two ways in which this 
could have been done : first, by interceding with an 
especial power which controls the elements ; or, second, 
working in harmony with some law which produced 
such an effect. In either case, the power that can con- 
li 



162 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

trol the elements so as to regulate the falling of rain 
can certainly control enough to drive disease from the 
human system. If James argues that it was done as an 
especial favor in answer to prayer, then his position is, 
God will hear prayer as in the case of Elias ; otherwise, 
his position is, man can control the elements as in the 
case of Elijah. 

The w r orld is now beginning to understand that mind 
must control matter. Man will yet control all the 
elements. This idea is found in more than one place in 
the Bible. David says of man, — 

" Thou madest him to have dominion over the works 
of thy hands ; thou hast put all things under his feet." 
— Ps. viii. 6. 

Paul quotes and comments on this text as follows : — 

" But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is 
man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, 
that thou visitest him ? Thou madest him a little lower 
than the angels ; thou crownedst him with glory and 
honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hands. 
Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. 
For, in that he put all in subjection under him, he left 
nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not 
yet all things put under him." — Heb. ii. 6-8. 

So it is. All things — yea, all the elements — are, 
prospectively, under man ; but all things are not yet, in 
fact, under his control. As man obtains a knowledge of 
science, the elements, one after another, become subject 
to him. We do believe, with James, David, and Paul, 
that man will yet control them all. 

" My friend," said a good mother in Israel to us, 
u that is blasphemy. You talk of making it rain : that 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 163 

is taking God's business out of his hands. You must not 
assume to be God." "Yes," said we : "there are a 
great many blasphemers in the world. In the last cen- 
tury, there was one, Benjamin Franklin by name, who 
undertook to take the lightning; out of the hands of the 
Almighty, and succeeded ; corked it up in a bottle, car- 
ried it in his pocket, and exhibited it as a trophy of the 
triumph of science. The world which scoffed and 
laughed at the ' insane blasphemer,' at once began to 
worship him as a semi-god. If the lightning, the most 
subtile of all the elements, can be even partially con- 
trolled by man, certainly the grosser elements can be 
made to yield to his power." 

There are laws regulating the falling of rain ; and 
man needs but to understand and apply them to produce 
a shower. Every one knows, that, if a lump of ice be 
put into a pitcher of water on a very hot day, the result 
will be, that water will soon cover the whole outside of 
the pitcher. The philosophy of the phenomenon is 
simply this : the atmosphere outside of the pitcher is 
warm ; the cold water and ice inside the pitcher change 
the temperature ; the vessel, being a conductor, conveys 
the cold temperature to its surface ; there it meets the 
heated atmosphere ; and the result is a condensation ; the 
hydrogen of the atmosphere in immediate connection 
with the vessel settles upon it. Thus a small shower has 
been produced. Apply this law on a larger scale, and 
a heavier rain-storm is the result. Rains have almost 
always followed as a result of hard battles, where there 
was a great deal of heavy cannonading. It has been 
remarked in this country that a shower is more apt to 
come up on the afternoon of the fourth day of July 



164 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

than any other day of that month. The celebration on 
that day of our nation's birth, which is done by burning 
powder and jarring up the elements, is undoubtedly the 
cause. Atmosphere, as it is heated and disturbed, ex- 
pands, and, of course, in proportion to its bulk, becomes 
lighter ; the result is, it rises, and the colder, heavier at- 
mosphere sinks ; as the heated air rises through the cold, 
the condensation occurs ; and, as a result, we have a 
shower of rain. 

Now, we venture to say, give a Yankee a furnace of 
sufficient magnitude to heat a sufficient portion of air, 
and an engine of sufficient power to send the heated 
atmosphere through the colder stratum, and he will pro- 
duce a shower any time on twenty-four hours' notice. 

If it were possible to bore down five miles into the 
earth, we would find a heat sufficient to melt the hard- 
est substance known. May not the time come when 
man will be able to dive down into the bowels of the 
earth, and from its eternal fire regulate our climate, 
both as to temperature and moisture? But if the ele- 
ments can be controlled, as James insinuates, why may 
not the other portion of the text be true, and disease 
pass under the control of man ? 

Permit us now to examine this from a scientific stand- 
point. And, first, we must inquire after the philosophy 
of disease and cure. To illustrate : suppose a lady, the 
mother of four children, to be taken ill. She decides 
to send for the elder, as per direction, and have him 
pray for her. A philosopher chances to meet the elder 
at the lady's house, and the following dialogue ensues : — 

Philosopher. — " What is the cause of the lady's 
sickness ? " 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 165 

Elder. — "Ah! ' the Lord hath greatly afflicted 
her.' You know that 

6 God moves in a mysterious way 
His wonders to perform : 
He plants his footsteps in the sea, 
And rides upon the storm I ' " 

p HIL . _ " Why has God afflicted her ? " 
Eld. — " Because, in his wisdom, he sees it to be the 
best." 

Phil. — " Then why pray for it to be removed ? If 
it is best for her to be afflicted, do not ask God to re- 
move that which she needs. The superior wisdom of 
the Almighty knows that she needs affliction : hence he 
has sent it upon her. Now, will you ask Infinite Wisdom 
to give place to your folly, and heal her, when he knows 
that it is not for the best ? and will he obey you ? That 
makes God a time-serving demagogue, whiffling about 
to suit the thousand and one notions of his creatures. 
When you prove that position, I will cease to believe 
the world is governed by Infinite Wisdom, but by the 
caprices of his people : so, if God has afflicted the lady, 
my advice to you is to let him manage the matter. 
What did God make her sick for ? " 

Eld. — u Oh ! he intends to take her to himself." 
Phil. — u He does ? Well, he is abundantly able to 
carry out his determinations. He undoubtedly thinks 
it is best that she should die, or he would not kill her ; 
and if God, who, you will admit, ought to know, thinks 
it best that she should die, I will not ask him to revoke 
his decision to take her life : for, the moment he yields to 
my judgment, he is un-Grod-ed." 



166 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

Eld. — " She has four children, who will be left with- 
out a mother. It is a pity that she should die : I will 
tell God all, and ask him to restore her." 

Phil. — " Then you think, when you lay all the facts 
before the Author of the universe, that he may reconsider 
the case. Perhaps he has not thought that these chil- 
dren will be left in so destitute a condition." 

Eld. — " Well, the fact is, I do not think we can 
change the mind of the omnipotent God ; but I will ask 
him, if it is in harmony with his will, to raise her up. 
I think he intends to restore her to health." 

Phil. — a Very well : if he intends to restore her, he 
will accomplish it. Why do you interfere ? If the 
lady is restored to health, it is in accordance with the 
predetermination of God, and not in answer to your 
prayers." 

Eld. — " You must be an infidel: don't you believe 
in praying for the sick ? " 

Phil. — u I most certainly believe in praying for the 
afflicted ; but convince me that God has any thing to do 
with the matter, one way or another, and I will never 
pray. God is abundantly able to attend to his own 
business." 

Eld. — " What do you mean ? Has God nothing to 
do with the case?" 

Phil. — u Nothing at all. The lady has violated the 
laws of health, and is now paying the penalty. Jesus, 
if he were to administer to her needs, would say, ' Daugh- 
ter, thy sins are forgiven thee.' Sin, a violation of the 
law, and nothing else, has made her sick. ' God, in his 
providence,' does not send dyspepsia to one who has not 
been intemperate either in the quantity or quality of 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 167 

food and drink taken into the stomach. I have known 
many dyspeptics to charge to God what they owed to 
greed. Rheumatism and all the ailments of mankind 
come as the result of sin against the laws of health ; and 
all that is wanted to remove disease is to restore the 
broken laws." 

Eld. — " But will prayer do it? " 

Phil. — " In many instances, it will. It would do it 
in almost every case in the days of James ; and now, in 
cases where prayer will not remove disease, there is an 
equivalent in something else." 

Eld. — u What is it ? I do not understand you." 

Phil. — " I will explain. Disease is under the con- 
trol of mind, — partially the mind of the operator, and 
partially, it may be, the mind of the patient. In order 
to effectually remove disease, the patient must be not 
only negative to the operator, but in magnetic rapport 
with him : so, if the one to be healed is a great believer 
in prayer, her confidence is inspired, and she passes into 
more perfect communion with the operator by that than 
by any other means. If, on the other hand, the patient 
is a philosopher, largely developed in the region of cau- 
sality and comparison, he will be disgusted with the in- 
sane verbiage generally handed out as prayer ; and his 
disgust, if nothing else, will cause him to repel all the 
health-giving power, which, otherwise, might have been 
imparted. In such a case, three minutes of philosophy 
would be w r orth more than three months of prayer ; for, 
be it understood, the power must pass from the operator 
co the patient." 

Eld. — " This may be infidelity, but it is strangely 
nteresting: please proceed." 



168 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

Phil. — " Disease and cure are always the result of 
impression, — sometimes mental and sometimes physical. 
There are cases where it is necessary to produce a phys- 
ical impression in order to operate on the mental facul- 
ties. It is well known that lobelia will produce vomit- 
ing. The philosophy is this : lobelia is a foreign sub- 
stance, does not belong to the stomach. As soon as it is 
thrown into it, the whole system learns there is an un- 
lawful tenant there, and sends its fluids to neutralize it : 
the stomach cramps, has spasms, and, as a result, dis- 
gorges its contents. In this case, vomiting was produced 
as a result of a physical impression. Now, this effect 
could be produced by producing a mental impression. 
Make the patient know, beyond a doubt, that he has taken 
any kind of medicine, and the same result as though he 
had taken the medicine will follow. Speak to a very 
sensitive lady in a positive manner, so as to make her 
believe, beyond a doubt, that she has swallowed a fly, 
and vomiting will be the result. The stomach will not 
retain a fly ; and the effect of making a person believe 
that a fly is in the stomach is the same as though it was 
there. Criminals condemned to death have been put 
on clean, nice beds, and been made to believe that per- 
sons had recently died with small-pox on the beds on 
which they were to sleep : the result was, they took the 
contagion, and died. In hundreds of instances, mental 
impressions have created disease by which patients have 
lost their lives. A man was once lying on his back, 
unable to move, from inflammatory rheumatism, when 
he saw his father fall from the top of a cherry-tree in 
the yard, and, he supposed, kill himself. The invalid 
jumped from his helpless position, and picked up his 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 169 

father, and carried him into the house, and was perfectly- 
surprised to find himself restored to health." 

Eld. — " What removed his disease ? " 

Phil. — " The excitement of the occasion. Now, 
man should look from such phenomena to the law which 
produces them, and he might apply it with beneficial 
results." 

Our philosopher is correct. The excitement started 
the electric fluid, and that started all the fluids of the 
system into action : the result was a complete change for 
the better. We personally knew of an individual, who 
held a county office by the suffrage of the people, who 
went to a political meeting of the party whose senti- 
ments he did not indorse ; and upon being called a liar, 
knave, and villain, and accused of stealing, and several 
other such crimes as politicians usually accuse the party 
in power of committing, the individual became so excited, 
that he took an apoplectic fit, and died. Whatever 
doctors and coroner's juries may have decided, this man 
was killed by the abuse heaped on him by the speaker. 
Now, the law by which this man was killed might be 
used in many cases (perhaps not to so great an extent 
as was here used) with beneficial results. There are 
thousands of hypochondriacs to-day who need nothing 
more than to have their anger thoroughly aroused to 
effect a cure. The system can not remain diseased 
where the electric fluid flows properly ; and, where it 
does not, disease must be the result. 

Will some philosopher tell the power by which our 
pen now moves in obedience to our will ? All acknowl- 
edge that somehoiv mind is the propelling power. All 
volition inheres in mind or spirit. The mind wills the 



170 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

pen to move ; but the mind can not operate upon the pen 
without a medium : it uses the hand as the medium by 
which to move the pen. But the mind can not touch the 
hand : it must operate on something it can touch. The 
muscle can operate on the bones of the hand, and all 
other bones ; but the mind can not operate on the 
muscle : the blood, however, can. Now, all would be 
light if the mind could operate on the blood ; but that it 
can not do. The nerves, or rather the electric currents 
flowing through the nerves, can operate on the blood ; 
and the mind operates directly on these currents. Hence 
we have it »as follows : the mind, or spirit, which has its 
throne in the brain, which is but the termination of all 
the nerves of the system, operates on electricity, uses it 
as its agent ; the electricity operates on the nerves, the 
nerves on the blood, the blood on the muscle, the muscle 
on the bone, the bone on the pen, and thus the spirit 
writes. If other spirits could become positive to the 
spirit controlling this organism, they could control this 
spirit, and through it the entire organism. 

Now suppose, while writing, our pen suddenly drops 
from our hand, and the hand to our side, totally para- 
lyzed : where is the disease ? No scalpel can find it. 
Cut the body into inch pieces, and the right side, though 
utterly unable to move, would, to all appearances, be 
found as healthy as the other. Then why does not the 
right hand move as well as the left? We answer, 
When the mind wishes the hand to move, it telegraphs 
from its office in the brain along these nerves to the 
hand to move ; and the hand always does its bidding. 
But when there is an obstruction in the nerves, so the 
electricity can not flow, the hand can not receive the 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 171 

dispatch, and hence can not know that it has been re- 
quested to move. Remove the obstruction from the 
nerves, so that the electricity can flow properly, and all 
is well. 

All disease is either positive or negative, and always 
lights on the weakest part of the patient. Load a 
wagon too heavily, and the weakest part will break : so, 
if a person is weaker in the knees than the lungs, his 
disease may be inflammatory rheumatism ; if weakest in 
the lungs, it may be lung fever; if, perchance, the kidneys 
are the weakest, all other portions of the organism might 
escape, and the patient be afflicted with inflammation in 
those organs. If the currents flow too rapidly, the dis- 
ease is positive ; and the result is fever, acute pain, and 
sometimes insanity. If, on the other hand, the currents 
do not flow rapidly enough, the result will be cold ex- 
tremities, dull, stupid feelings, partial or total paralysis, 
&c. In either instance, all that is needed is to set the 
currents of electricity into proper action. How can 
this be done ? As our philosopher intimated, sometimes 
by prayer, sometimes by anger, and sometimes by excite- 
ment. 

Ln order to remove or control the disease of a patient, 
the operator must at least have a partial control of 
the electric currents of the system : those he can control 
by controlling the mind of the patient ; and that must be 
done by the electric currents of his own system. These 
currents, especially so far as the voluntary organs are 
concerned, must be under the control of his will-power: 
lie must by will-power overcome the will of the patient ; 
to do this, the patient must be kept in a receptive or 
negative condition. This is easily done by gaining and 



172 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

retaining the confidence of the patient ; so, if the patient 
is a great believer in prayer, the surest method will be 
to pray. If not, some other means must be devised. 

The electric currents flowing through the nerves can 
be made to pass through the nerves of any number of 
persons by their joining hands. Witness where a dozen 
or more form a circle, and those at the ends hold on to 
a battery, all in the circle will receive the same shock 
at the same time. The nerves of those having hold of the 
latter are filled with electricity ; and electric currents, 
like all things else, seek their equilibrium, and hence 
infill the nerves of all who are in contact with those in 
connection with the battery. Now, let patient and ope- 
rator come in contact, either mental or physical, and the 
electric currents at once seek an equilibrium : when 
that has been obtained, the cause of disease has been 
removed. Now, in proportion to the operator's medium- 
ship, he is interwoven with a circle of spirits, who can 
impart to him the needed life and health giving in- 
fluences ; and in proportion as he passes into magnetic 
rapport with his patients, will they be brought into con- 
nection with a health-imparting influence from the be- 
yond. This we know, both as a matter of science and 
history. Having spent near six years in the study and 
practice of this mediumship, our faith takes hold of the 
wonderful cures wrought by prophets, Jesus, and his 
comrades of olden time. We know there is a law by 
which such things are being done now : that law, 
being as old as heaven, reaches back over the first case 
of healing, and is more eternal than the " everlasting 
hills." 

We frankly confess, that, in our healing efforts, we 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 173 

have failed to perform a perfect cure in three cases out 
of five ; but does that prove there is nothing in this nie- 
diumship, or that it has not been vouchsafed to us ? No : 
it only proves that hi cases of failure we did not get 
en rapport, either with the fountains whence w^e drew 
our supply, or with the patient to whom we humbly 
sought to impart the needed blessing. The best healers 
in the world fail sometimes. It was so anciently ; and it 
is so to-day. Jesus often failed. In his own country, his 
brethren became offended with him : the result was such 
an antagonism that he could not do any thing. The 
Evangelist says, — 

" And they were offended with him. But Jesus said 
unto them, A prophet is not without honor, save in his 
own country and in his own house. And he did not 
many mighty works there, because of their unbelief." — 
Matt. xiii. 57, 58. 

In Mark vi. 4-6, we read, — 

" But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without 
honor, but in his own country, and among his own kin, 
and in his own house. And he could there do no mighty 
work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, 
and healed them. And he marveled because of their un- 
belief. And he went round about the villages teaching." 

In Mark ix. 17-29, we have a full history of the fail- 
ure of Jesus' disciples in one case, and of his statement 
as to the cause. Even after the young man was healed, 
the friends pronounced him dead. In this case, Jesus 
would not operate until he saw that the father, who was 
en rapport with the patient, with tears in his eyes 
avowed his entire confidence in the healing power of 
the Nazarene. The case is so interesting, we give it 
entire : — 



174 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

" And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, 
I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb 
spirit : and wheresoever he taketh him he teareth him ; 
and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth 
away ; and I spake to thy disciples, that they should cast 
him out ; and they could not. He answereth him, and 
saith, O faithless generation ! how long shall I be with 
you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him unto me. 
And they brought him unto him : and when he saw him, 
straightway the spirit tare him ; and he fell on the 
ground and wallowed foaming. And he asked his 
father, How long is it ago since this came unto him ? 
And he said, Of a child. And oft-times it hath cast 
him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him ; 
but, if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, 
and help us. Jesus said unto him, If thou canst be- 
lieve, all things are possible to him that believeth. And 
straightway the father of the child cried out, and said 
with tears, Lord, I believe : help thou mine unbelief. 
When Jesus saw that the people came running together, 
he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb 
and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and 
enter no more into him. And the spirit cried, and rent 
him sore, and came out of him ; and he was as one dead, 
insomuch that many said, He is dead. But Jesus took 
him by the hand, and lifted him up ; and he arose. 
And when he was come into the house, his disciples 
asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out ? 
And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by 
nothing but by prayer and fasting." 

This case is sufficient to show that in ancient times, 
where one medium failed to remove disease, another 
could sometimes afford the needed relief. 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 175 

In this chapter we have briefly gone through the New 
Testament, and shown that believers should exercise 
the same power Jesus used. We have also shown, from 
science, the probabilities that such things should occur. 
It remains, that w^e present a few historical facts, show- 
ing that the Christ-power is yet on the earth. We have 
so often been relieved of distress in our own person, 
and have on so many occasions witnessed it in others, 
that it would take a larger volume than the one we are 
writing to hold every narrative we could bring. From 
the hands of Dr. J. R. Newton of Boston, Dr. J. P. 
Bryant of New York, Drs. Freeman and Wilbur of 
Milwaukie, we have experienced such sudden and per- 
fect relief, that we could not question the power. We 
have seen persons, within five minutes of the time they 
have hobbled into the presence of Dr. Newton or Bryant, 
on crutches, leave their crutches, and go away perfectly 
well, in many instances " leaping, and praising God." 
We have witnessed the opening of blind eyes, and have 
heard tongues long silent lisp the praise of the power 
by which they were loosed. We, ourself, have, by the 
word or touch, cured nearly every ailment that over- 
takes the flesh. 

A few statements from those who have been healed 
may not come amiss here. We have seen an autograph 
letter, of which the following is a true copy : — 

Indianapolis, Ind., Nov. 30, 1868. 

Dr. J. R. Newton. Dear Sir, — Duty impels me 
to give you a plain statement of my life's sufferings, and 
cure by you ; which you may publish. 

I, Abraham Clarke, of Indianapolis, Ind., twenty- 



176 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

one years old the 25th inst., having been a paralytic 
cripple ever since I was three months old, unable even 
to lift my hands up to my head, or walk without great 
difficulty, and so nervous I could hardly stand or sit still, 
and at times suffering so great pain that my wailings 
were intolerable to those around me, on Saturday last, 
Nov. 28, went with my mother to see if you could 
cure me ; for I had heard so much of your wonderful 
power of curing all kinds of diseases, without medicine, 
which all other doctors said were incurable, that I had 
faith you could. 

To make a short story, I say, you cured me perfectly, 
with one treatment. I arose upon my feet, walked 
without limping, with a firm, easy step, raised my hands 
above my head ; then I took a large, heavy chair in 
either hand by the leg of each, holding and balancing 
them above my head as few well men can do. And, to 
sum it all up, I say that I am made whole and sound as 
any other living man, as far as I know or others discern, 
and for the first time in my life am in the full enjoy- 
ment of health. And I thank my heavenly Father that 
I am a well man. My former life and suffering seem 
like a dream. 

In gratitude, I am your friend, 

Abraham Clarke. 

Indianapolis, Nov. 30, 1868. 
Personally appeared before me Abraham Clarke, 
who deposes under oath that the foregoing statement is 
every word true. 

Subscribed and sworn before me, J. P. Pinkerton, 
a Notary Public, in 'and for the County of Marion, 
State of Indiana. 

J. P. Pinkerton, Notary Public. 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 177 

The foregoing statement of my son, Abraham Clarke, 
is all true. Isabella Clarke. 

Dr. Newton is now operating at No. 23 Harrison 
Avenue, Boston, where there are on exhibition faith- 
ful photographic likenesses of this young man, taken 
immediately before and after his treatment : the differ- 
ence in his looks could not be imagined by one who had 
not seen them. 

The following we copy from " The New- York Dis- 
patch : " — 

A JUST TRIBUTE TO DR. J. R. NEWTON. 

New York, Oct. 2 
Dear Sir, — Having seen in " The Tribune " of 
Sept. 10 an account of " Healing by Magnetism," I 
can not, in justice to Dr. Newton or to my own feel- 
ings, refrain from giving a true statement of the most 
wonderful and impressive scene that I have ever wit- 
nessed in my life of nearly fifty years. The daughter 
of my brother, a farmer residing in New Boston, N.H., 
has, for the past three years, been one of the greatest 
sufferers, and for six years an invalid, suffering from 
spinal disease and other ailments. Her father has la- 
bored by day and night to secure for her the services of 
eleven of the best physicians in the neighborhood of his 
home : but her disease has defied their utmost efforts 
and skill : and they had left hier to linger and die, de- 
claring they could do no more for her. 

The father, in agony of heart, wrote me that he knew 
not what to do. Deeply sympathizing with him, and 
being about to visit some friends in Vermont, I wrote 

12 



178 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

to inform him that I had heard of one Dr. J. R. New- 
ton (but I had never seen him), who was reported to 
have performed some wonderful cures ; and if his daugh- 
ter wished to come, and could bear the journey of two 
hundred and fifty miles, and would write me while in 
Vermont, I would go to his house, and bring her home 
with me to see Dr. Newton. The answer was in the 
affirmative, and I went to see my niece ; but when I 
entered the chamber of the sick girl, and looked upon 
her wan and emaciated body, that had wasted, since I 
last saw her, from one hundred and twenty-five pounds 
to less than seventy ; when I recollected that she had 
lain in that situation for two long years, depending for 
every motion upon kind and gentle hands, my faith left 
me : I did not believe she could be moved, much less 
cured. 

She was, however, willing and anxious to make the 
attempt ; and when we laid her carefully upon a narrow 
bed, and carried her down stairs, and placed her in a 
carriage to ride eighteen miles to the cars, it seemed the 
height of folly to start on such an undertaking with such 
a charge, with such a faint hold on human life. When 
she reached the cars, she said it seemed as though all 
her strength was gone, and that she could not live much 
longer. She was, however, restored by the use of stim- 
ulants ; and we went on. She was taken one hundred 
and seventeen miles by railroad, and one hundred and 
fifteen by steamboat, and arrived in New York on the 
morning of Aug. 30. The patient had suffered in- 
tensely through the whole of the journey. It was with 
great difficulty that she was carried on a stretcher to the 
house of her friends. She reached them, however, but 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 179 

not to greet them. Her father and two weeping sisters, 
with others, stood around what all supposed to be her 
dying bed. 

Dr. Newton had been informed of her case ; and, in 
the unbounded kindness of his heart (contrary to his 
practice), he left his house, and hastened to the sick girl. 

The solemnity and impressiveness of that scene will 
for ever be remembered by all who were present, but it 
can never be described. In a manner (as the doctor 
truly says) peculiar to himself, he treated the uncon- 
scious and apparently dying patient ; and in less than 
three minutes she sat up in bed. She then arose to her 
feet, and walked the floor with the doctor's assistance. 

Her pain and suffering had all gone. Her spine, 
which had not been touched for years without giving 
her intense pain, could now be roughly handled by all 
present. Food was immediately ordered ; and amid the 
solemn silence of the room, where there was no sound 
save the sobs and fast-flowing tears of joy, she partook 
of the food. She ate heartily, and relished and enjoyed 
such a meal as she had not done in five years. 

I am forced to look back with wonder and amazement 
at the above-described scene, and bound to acknowl- 
edge that it is beyond the reach of my mind to under- 
stand. I have only to say that her pleasant voice and 
cheerful smile greet us at the table of the family circle 
daily : she has continued to improve from that hour, and 
stands to-day a living witness, ever ready to testify to 
the power and goodness of her heavenly Father, as ex- 
tended to her through the kind-hearted and benevolent 
Dr. Newton. Moses Cristy, 

No. 380, Pearl Street, New York. 



180 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

As we spoke of seeing blindness cured, we will give 
one affidavit. 

Peter Manning, being sworn, deposes and says : I live 
in Bordentown, N.J. On the 30th of October, 1862, 
I called on Dr. J. R. Newton. I was blind two years 
and three months. When I came to Dr. Newton, I was 
so bad that I could not see a gaslight in front of me ; 
after ten minutes' treatment, without pain, I was enabled 
to see to read and write, and have kept my own books 
ever since. PeTer Manning. 

Sworn and subscribed before me, this fourth day of 
March, 1863. Wm. P. Hibberd, Alderman. 

Hundreds of testimonials such as the above could be 
gathered ; but it is unnecessary. These cases are of 
such frequent occurrence, that the reader can very easily 
supply himself with all the documentary evidence neces- 
sary. 

Now, in all candor, permit us to ask, What can be 
done with such cases as the above ? They are before 
the world, and demand an explanation. Jesus said, 
u These sigiis shall follow them that believe." Are 
they not sufficient to prove, to those who think, that 
there are true believers, at least, among the Spiritualists ? 
A conversation once occurred between ourself and a 
lady of the Advent faith, which sufficiently illustrates 
the point : — 

Lady. — " I saw you operate on Mrs. last even^ 

ing ; and, though we supposed her case to be hopeless, 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 181 

she was perfectly restored in a few minutes : but it was 
the Devil that cured her." 

Hull. — " Pretty fine old gentleman, that Devil of 
yours. If that is a specimen of his character, he has 
been grossly slandered : what a pity that churches and 
ministers misrepresent everybody, not excepting even 
the Devil himself!" 

L. — " The Devil is not so good, after all. He made 

Mrs. sick, and then sent you, his agent, to cure 

her." 

H. — " Then Satan's kingdom is divided against itself, 
and can not stand: so we can begin to hope to soon get 
rid of his Majesty." 

L. — " Not at all. They are all parts of the same 

work. The Devil made Mrs. sick, and then sent 

you, his agent, to make her well : he knew that she 
would see the benevolence manifested in curing her, 
rather than the malevolence of making her sick. He is 
removing disease from the lady for the sake of getting 
possession of her soul." 

H. — "In your remarks you have given me another 
evidence that I am a disciple of Jesus ; for he said, — 

" c It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, 
and the servant as his lord. If they have called the 
master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall 
they call them of his household ? ' — Matt. x. 25. 

"If such charges were brought by the popular church 
against a former healer, what better could we expect 
now? " 

L. — "But Ms mission was divine: yours is not." 

H. — " Spiritualists prove the divinity of their mis- 
sion in the same way that Jesus proved his was an 



182 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

errand of mercy to humanity. If you will turn to Matt, 
xi. 2-6, you will read, — 

" 4 Now, when John had heard in the prison the works 
of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, and said unto him, 
Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another ? 
Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John 
again those things which ye do hear and see : the blind 
receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are 
cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and 
the poor have the gospel preached unto them.' 

" Now, I ask, in all candor, Was Jesus' logic good? 
Did he prove the divinity of his mission by such works ? 
Then wall not the same works prove the divinity of the 
power by which they are wrought ? How startling 
your logic ! you prove Jesus a God by his good works, 
and healing-mediums Devils by the same ! " 

L. — " I do not choose to argue with you. Christ is 
coming shortly to destroy the w r orks of the Devil : then 
these questions will be settled." 

H. — "Christ came once in the person of Jesus of 
Nazareth, and through him did many great works ; but 
he was, according to promise, to come again, not in the 
person of one reformer. Jude says, — 

" c Behold he cometh with ten thousand of his saints.' 
— Verse 14. 

" The Greek word rendered 6 with,' in this text, is en, 
and should be rendered ' in.' The Christ-power came 
once in one reformer ; now it has come in ten thousand 
mediums : so that almost every hamlet on the continent 
has the evidence that the second coming of the Christ 
is accomplishing more than was accomplished through 
the mediumship of Jesus." 






THE QUESTION SETTLED. 183 

L. — " But where are the clouds ? He was to come 
in the clouds." 

H. — " So he was to come on horseback. John 
says, — 

" ' And I saw heaven opened, and, behold, a white 
horse ; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and 
True ; and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. 
His eyes were a flame of fire, and on his head were 
many crowns ; and he had a name written, that no man 
knew but he himself. And he was clothed in a vesture 
dipped in blood ; and his name is called, The Word of 
God. And the armies which were in heaven followed 
him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and 
clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that 
with it he should smite the nations ; and he shall rule 
them with a rod of iron ; and he treadeth the wine-press 
of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he 
hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, 
KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.' — 
Rev. xix. 11-16. 

" But who looks for ' the King of kings and Lord of 
lords ' on an old gray horse, because of this declaration ? 
May not the clouds, like the horses, be symbols ? Clouds 
of witnesses are mentioned in the Bible ; and to-day it 
is said that there are eleven millions of witnesses of the 
living Christ-power manifested on earth at the present 
time. I tell you Christ is here : you have had a demon- 
stration of it in the healing of this lady." 

L. — " But the grave is to yield up its victory, and 
death its sting, when Christ comes : I do not see as that 
is done." 

II. — " I do. Once I regarded death as a dark and 



184 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

cruel foe. When my friends were taken from me, if 
they were not stung, I was. Now the grave into which 
I used to look for my mother holds her no longer. / 
know she is not there. I have seen her and talked with 
her. She lives to-day ; and, for myself, death has lost 
its sting. I do not dread it. It is natural ; it is right : 
but I never could see it so until it was manifest in the 
second coming of Christ." 

This chapter has already grown beyond the limits in- 
tended ; but we can not conclude without issuing a chal- 
lenge to the theological world. Not for words, but 
deeds. We call for a convention of the religious world, 
the object of which shall be to ascertain where the true 
believers are, the matter to be tested by their works. 
Jesus says the believers shall accomplish even greater 
works than were wrought through his mediumship. Are 
the churches believers ? Will they try it ? If they 
will go into convention, and do the works Jesus did, we 
propose, in behalf of Spiritualism, to acknowledge them 
believers. If they can not, will they be honest enough 
to confess themselves infidels? After they have all 
tried and failed, as fail they will as sure as they try, 
we are willing to be one of twenty mediums (that is 
one hundred less in number than they had on the day 
of Pentecost), who will go upon the same rostrum, into 
the same assembly where the churches failed; and if 
we do not, in a less space of time than ten days, accom- 
plish all that was done by the disciples within the first 
ten days after the ascension of Jesus, we will acknowl- 
edge that Spiritualists are like the churches, — they 
are infidels. If, however, we accomplish the work, will 
the orthodox world take back the slanderous, libelous 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 185 

charge of infidelity ? We hand out this challenge in 
all sincerity, yet not with any hope that it will be ac- 
cepted. 

That all strife and sectism may give place to the pure 
doctrines and practices which make men better, and 
prove them humble followers after all truth and virtue, 
is our most earnest Draver. 



CHAPTER VII. 

ARE WE DELUDED? 

A Common Cry — Contradictory Positions — Order of Batteries — They fire into 
each other — "Kettle Story" — Result of the Warfare — Dialogue — God 
and Mediums deceiving the World — Are God and the Devil Partners — Is 
it just to damn the World for Unbelief — Author loves God more than Bi- 
bles — Lying Spirits sent out — Did God do it — Case of Jeremiah and Eze- 
kiel — Ezekiel's Explanation — Spiritualism a Delusion — The Lord coming — 
Reasoning in a Circle — Wonderful Success of the Opposition (?) — Spirit- 
ualism will not "down" — "Old Split-foot" — Toe-joint Theory — Hidden 
Meaning in appointing these Committees — The Machinery Argument — Ar- 
guments of Opposers suicidal to themselves — Human Testimony rejected 
— Conditions required — Conditions of Sleep — Conversation with a Pho- 
tographist — Conditions of Photography — Telegraphy — Arguments against 
Spiritualism would overthrow the Bible — An Infidel Deacon denies his 
Bible — A Giant Delusion — Spiritualism Twenty-two Years ago and now — 
A prospective View — Spiritualism Positive and Aggressive — Reasons for go- 
ing to Church — Churches not Proselyting — Why do Persons become Spirit- 
ualists — Rev. A. J. Frishbach's Reply — Suffering for Spiritualism — Minis- 
ters' Wives in the Lunatic Asylum for Spiritualism — Author's Experience — 
The Quality of Converts to Spiritualism — Our Evidence not in the Number 
or Intelligence of Converts — Giant Minds yield — Atheism and Materialism 
give Place — Hon. N. P. Talmadge and J. W. Edmonds — " The Kings of the 
Earth " — Opposers fall before the Power — Gamaliel's Opinion — A charm- 
ing Delusion — Efforts to convert a Spiritualist — Death-bed Scene — "Oh, 
happy Delusion ! " — It is not a Delusion — Child Medium. 

FOR more than a score of years the opponents of 
Spiritualism have been following it with the cry 
of "delusion!" The only thing our opponents have 
ever been able to agree in, is, that Spiritualism is some 
kind of a delusion. Notwithstanding all agree so far, it 
excites the mirthfulness of a Spiritualist who is posted 
up as to its evidences to hear the various contradictory 

186 






THE QUESTION SETTLED. 187 

positions taken by those whose bread and butter depends 
upon putting it down. Indeed, we ought not to laugh 
at their calamity ; for if their lives, instead of their living, 
depended on writing and preaching Spiritualism down, 
they could not succeed any better. 

Not long since, it was our privilege to attend a discus- 
sion where five men affirmed that Spiritualism was a delu- 
sion. They succeeded admirably in agreeing so far : but 
here the agreement ended; for, before they had finished 
their arguments, they had taken every one of the nine 
contradictory positions usually brought to bear against it 
and each other. Each speaker succeeded in placing him- 
self on as many sides of each of the contradictory posi- 
tions usually brought to bear against each other as his 
limited time would allow. As we listened to the logic 
of these killers of Spiritualism, we thought, What a won- 
der it does not die, men shooting at it from nine differ- 
ent directions ! There are only two reasons why oppo- 
nents have failed to kill Spiritualism : one is, they have 
ever fired more shots at each other than at their common 
enemy ; the other is, Spiritualism is " iron-clad." Bun- 
ker-Hill Monument could be battered down with pop- 
guns easier than the monument erected by the angel- 
world to show its existence, power, and victories, could be 
overthrown by the artillery of infidel church-members. 

If the batteries pelting at Spiritualism were named 
and numbered, they would be about as follows : — 

Battery No. 1. — " And for this cause God shall send 
them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie ; 
that they all might be damned who believed not the 
truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." — 2 Thess. 
ii. 11, 12. 

" Spiritualism is God's delusion." 



188 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

Battery No. 2. — " Even him whose coming is after 
the working of Satan, with all power and signs and lying 
wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness 
in them that perish ; because they received not the love 
of the truth, that they might be saved." — 2 Thess. 
ii. 9, 10. 

" For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, 
which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the 
whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great 
day of God Almighty." — Rev. xvi. 11. 

" Spiritualism is Satan's last and greatest delusion." 

Battery No. 3. — " The manifestations are produced 
by machinery." 

Battery No. 4. — " They are all wicked spirits." 

Battery No. 5. — " It is electricity." 

Battery No. 6. — " There are no manifestations. 
Spiritualists are for the most part idiotic or insane. 
Those who are not are lying knaves, dealing out de- 
ceptions to the credulous." 

Battery No. 7. — " Spiritualism is a contagious dis- 
ease, working on the mind as small-pox or cholera 
does on the body." 

Battery No. 8. — " God anciently made laws against it: 
it is therefore wicked to have any thing to do with it." 

Battery No. 9. — "It is new : we should inquire for 
the old paths, and stick to the religion of our fathers." 

One would naturally think, that, under the fires of 
nine as formidable guns as these look to be, Spiritualism 
would be compelled to surrender ; but, when the smoke 
and fog occasioned by this contest clears away, we 
assure all that not a shell has entered the arena of Spirit- 
ualism. God-delusions and Devil-delusions have been 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 189 

shooting at each other, and both are the worse for the 
battle. The machinery and wicked-spirit arguments 
have, after pitching into all the other theories, fallen 
from blows received from each other. The electricity 
and juggler theories have annihilated each other. The 
last-mentioned battery — that it is new and therefore un- 
true — has, after silencing the battery stationed where 
God anciently made laws against Spiritualism, surren- 
dered to fires from eight directions. 

Really such a jumble of absurdities reminds us of 
the " lawyer's kettle." A noted member of the bar, in 
summing up the evidence in defense of a client who 
had borrowed a kettle and returned it broken, said, 
" May it please the Court, we have proved, first, that 
the kettle was broken when we borrowed it ; second, 
that it was whole when we took it home ; and, third, 
that we never had the old kettle anyhow." 

The answer to the most of these objections must be re- 
served for another chapter. We only design here to note 
the consistency, or rather inconsistency, of opponents. 
This bushwhacking mode of warfare has resulted, as 
might have been expected, in converting people to Spirit- 
ualism by the million, until now the number of Spirit- 
ualists can not be computed ; even our opponents, some 
of them, setting it as high as eleven millions. Were 
there eleven millions of Spiritualists two years since, 
when this computation was made ? If so, they were 
eleven millions of evidences that the batteries erected 
against Spiritualism have slain that many more in their 
own ranks than in ours. 

Once, in traveling through the Western States, we fell 
into the company of a minister who was perfectly sure 



190 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

that Spiritualism was a delusion. The substance of what 
passed between us may be embodied in the following 
dialogue : — 

Minister. — "I have not a doubt but that Spiritual- 
ism is the delusion spoken of in 2 Thess. ii. 11." 

Hull. — " Then Spiritualists are God's servants, and 
you are fighting against him." 

Min. — "No. How can that be ? " 

H. — " The text asserts that ' God shall send them 
strong delusions.' If your interpretation is correct, Grod 
has sent several thousand mediums into the world, with 
a delusion to deceive the world ; and they would accom- 
plish it, if it were not that you are exposing the plans of 
God and the mediums" 

Min. — " God has nothing to do with it; he is op- 
posed to it : it is Satan who is working, with power, 
signs, and lying wonders." 

H. — " Your first text said it was God who was after 
the people with a delusion : now you have quoted an- 
other verse of the same chapter to prove that it is the 
Devil. Must I understand that the Devil is God's agent, 
— that he is working among the people because God 
sends them a delusion ? or is God and the Devil each 
after them with a deception called Spiritualism ? " 

Min. — " There is the text: make of it what you 
can. God will damn the world for unbelief; and Spirit- 
ualists have departed from the faith, and denied every 
cardinal doctrine of the Bible." 

H. — " And so you are going to have the world 
damned for unbelief, are you ? " 

Min. — " I am not : God is." 

H. — "Is there any justice in that? Do I make 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 191 

my own faith or want of faith? Can I govern my own 
belief more than I can the color of my eyes or hair ? Is 
not God my Author ? and is he not the Author of truth ? 
If I fail to harmonize with truth, am I, who neither 
made my common sense, nor yet the stories I can not 
believe, to blame? But your text asserts more than 
that. It does not simply say that God will punish un- 
belief; but it declares that God will send strong delusion 
after them, that they may believe a lie, that he may damn 
them. I say this is unjust." 

Min. — " If you loved your Bible, you would not 
dare to speak as you do." 

H. — "I love my Bible, and believe more of it each 
day than I did the day previous ; but, dearly as I love 
the Bible, I love God more. I could not see his char- 
acter sacrificed in this manner for any book. I find it 
much easier to believe Paul could be a little mistaken 
in an hypothesis, than to think God stoops thus to de- 
ceive his own children." 

Min. — " You should not reject the Bible because of 
an isolated expression like that. There are spots on the 
sun." 

H. — " Though I by no means reject the Bible, I 
assure you this is not an isolated expression. If you 
will turn to 1 Kings, xxii. 19-23, you will read, — 

" ' And he said, Hear thou therefore the word of the 
Lord : I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the 
host of heaven standing by him, on his right hand and 
on his left. And the Lord said, Who shall persuade 
Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead ? 
And one said on this manner, and another said on that 
manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood be- 



192 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

fore the Lord, and said, I will persuade him. And the 
Lord said nnto him, Wherewith ? And he said, I will 
go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all 
his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, 
and prevail also: go forth and do so. Now, therefore, 
behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of 
all these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil 
concerning thee.' 

" Now, there is a sense in which I believe this para- 
graph, and a sense in which I do not. If you ask me 
if I believe God sent a lying spirit, I answer, No. If I 
believe a lying spirit operated on all the prophets, in- 
cluding Micaiah, I say, Yes. But God does not stoop 
thus to conquer. Those disembodied wags who influ- 
enced the prophets perhaps thought their predictions 
were correct, and knew they would have more weight 
upon a self-conceited, ignorant king if they professed to 
come from Almighty God. You will remember, there 
were four hundred of these, all bearing testimony the 
same way, except Micaiah, who crossed his own track. 
Now let me ask, Do you believe God did it ? Is it not 
more charitable, to say the least, to believe the Bible 
writer correct as to fact, and mistaken as to hypoth- 
esis?" 

Min. — " These prophets were false prophets : no 
true prophet was ever led astray in that way." 

H. — " There is no evidence that these prophets were 
any more false than all the others. Jeremiah and 
Ezekiel were each deceived in the same way. Jeremiah 
says, — 

" c O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: 
thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed : I am in 
derision daily, every one mocketh me.' — Jer. xx. 7. 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 193 

" Now, I frankly acknowledge I do not believe that 
text; but do not misunderstand me. I grant that 
Jeremiah was deceived ; yes, deceived by lying spirits : 
but, when he accuses the Ruler of the Universe of de- 
ceiving him, I think he was mistaken. Again I say, 
4 Let God be true, though it make every man a liar.' 
As to Ezekiel, though he was one of the best physical 
and clairvoyant mediums in the world, he never uttered 
a truth in any of his predictions. His prophecies, more 
than all others, were the cause of a proverb to which 
he refers as follows : — 

" c And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 
Son of man, what is that proverb that ye have in the 
land of Israel, saying, The days are prolonged, and 
every vision faileth? Tell them, therefore, Thus saith 
the Lord God : I will make this proverb to cease, and 
they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel ; but say 
unto them, The days are at hand, and the effect of every 
vision. For there shall be no more any vain vision nor 
flattering divination within the house of Israel. For I 
am the Lord : I will speak, and the word that I shall 
speak shall come to pass ; it shall be no more prolonged : 
for in your days, O rebellious house, will I say the 
word, and will perform it, saith the Lord God. Again 
the word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, 
behold, they of the house of Israel say, The vision that 
he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth 
of the times that are far off. Therefore say unto them, 
Thus saith the Lord God : There shall none of my 
words be prolonged any more ; but the word which I 
have spoken shall be done, saith tiie Lord God.' — Ezek. . 
xii. 21-28. 

13 



194 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

14 Here the spirit acknowledges the truth of the 
proverb, but says he will make it to cease ; that is, there 
shall be no more any vain visions, nor any prophecies 
which applied to the distant future, but the effect of 
every vision is at hand. Again Ezekiel accounts for 
his false visions and prophecies as follows : — 

44 ' And if the prophet be deceived when he hath 
spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet ; 
and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will de- 
stroy him from the midst of my people Israel.' — Ezek. 
xiv. 9. 

" Once more I will confess, I do not believe the Lord 
deceives. I find it easier to believe Ezekiel was a little 
mistaken in supposing that influence came from 4 the 
Father of Lights with whom there is no variableness, 
neither shadow of turning.' " 

Min. — " Aren't you off the track ? We commenced 
to talk about Spiritualism, and you have gone off into a 
tirade of abuse of the Bible. Why do you not stick to 
the question ? " 

H. — " I have not abused the Bible, only your inter- 
pretation of certain portions of it ; but I will hear what 
you have to say about Spiritualism." 

Min. — "I say, and can prove, that Spiritualism is 
the delusion spoken of by Paul." 

H. — u How do you prove it ? You know there 
never has been a religious theory which has dared to 
drive out of the beaten track, but that this text has been 
quoted to prove it a delusion." 

Min. — " I prove my point thus : This delusion is to 
come up in the last days. The Lord's coming is after 
the working of Satan with power, signs, and lying won- 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 195 

ders. Signs are so ominous that there is no room left 
for doubt. The coming of the Lord is right upon us ; 
but we look for the Devil's work, — the great delusion, — 
and find Spiritualism, and that alone, coming at the right 
time, and answering the other specifications of the proph- 
ecy. We are, therefore, justified in the conclusion that 
Spiritualism is the delusion." 

H. — " That would do if you could prove your major 
proposition, that the coming of the Lord is near." 

Min. — " That is easily proved ; for, when Spiritual- 
ism comes up, the coming of the Lord follows imme- 
diately after." 

Here the call of " Change cars for Madison ! " ter- 
minated our conversation. We wanted to dissect our 
friend's logic for him, but had not the time. The logic 
comes in thus : — 

Proposition No. 1. — " The Lord is coming." 
Conclusion No. 1. — " Therefore Spiritualism is a 
delusion." 

Prop. No. 2. — " Spiritualism is a delusion." 
Con. No. 2. — " Therefore the Lord is coming." 
What accommodating logic ! The conclusion of the 
first proposition forms a basis for the second ; and that 
of the second quite as accommodatingly " wheels into 
line," and forms a basis for the first. If this is not a 
fair specimen of what logicians call " reasoning in a cir- 
cle," we acknowledge we never saw one. 

We now come to the direct question : Is Spiritualism 
a delusion ? A brief examination of its history will 
answer the question. If the arguments of the opposers 
of Spiritualism be true, then verily is " truth stranger 
than fiction." Its statement would be about as follows : 



196 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

Twenty-one years ago, two little girls, members of a 
respectable family, one of them nine and the other eleven 
years old, undertook, without any motive whatever, to de- 
lude and deceive the world. We say without motive ; for 
certainly there was no money in the deception, and there 
could not possibly have been any honor gained by it. 
These youths would have succeeded, had it not been that 
the ministers, doctors, and some of the lawyers, organ- 
ized a warfare against them, in which their talents, books 
and learning were brought into such effectual operation 
that, at the end of nineteen years, according to figures 
made by those making the attack, the children had only 
succeeded in making about eleven millions of converts ! 

".A stitch in time saves nine." Perhaps the reason 
of the success (?) of the opposition was their early, un- 
relenting, and untiring warfare. For the battle was com- 
menced before a test was given. It is also an acknowl- 
edged axiom, that " in union there is strength." The 
opposition was certainly united in one position, if no 
more ; that is, Spiritualism must be put down at what- 
ever cost. They paid the cost, " 'quitted themselves 
like men," sacrificed all, in many cases not excepting 
their honor ; but Spiritualism proved to be a " Banquo's 
ghost : " it would not " down." 

Before any intelligence had been derived from the 
mysterious noises, we remember to have heard it sug- 
gested that it was the Devil. Indeed, that charge was so 
common, that, long before they learned there was any 
intelligence connected with it, the little girls used to ad- 
dress it as " Old Split-foot." By an accident it was as- 
certained that this power was intelligent, could answer 
questions, and give other signs of knowing what was said 
to it. 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 197 

As soon as a communication was received containing 
an undeniable test, committees were appointed to inves- 
tigate and put it down. The first committee very readily 
and learnedly came to two conclusions : The first was, 
Spiritualism is a delusion. The second related to the 
modus operandi of that deception. The world was in- 
formed that the facts were simply these : The little girls, 
in going to school, got their toes frozen. When that was 
ascertained, the mother wet some linen in turpentine, 
and wrapped the toes in it : there was a connection be- 
tween the toe-joint, the linen, and the turpentine, that 
produced the concussions. This expose of the delusion 
did not last very long. The opposers had too many toes, 
and there was too much turpentine and linen among 
them. With all these implements for producing mani- 
festations, they failed to produce one single rap. 

This made it necessary to appoint another committee ; 
and here, permit us to say, there is a world of meaning 
in the appointment of this and other committees. It 
means, first, there are phenomena there which demand 
investigation ; second, other committees, learned men 
as they were, failed to give us a proper solution of these 
manifestations. 

Other committees soon came to several conclusions : 
the first always was, that Spiritualism was a delusion ; 
and the second generally was, that all previous commit- 
tees were deluded. The knee-joint theory, machinery 
theory, and all other systems of opposition to Spiritual- 
ism, had their day. Spiritualism lived to bury them 
all. " There is machinery in the table," was the cry 
raised by Prof. Matteson, and hundreds of others who 
would have been professors, but lacked the ability to 



198 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

cope with this learned blackguard. Many attended 
circles on purpose to detect the machinery, when, lo ! 
the raps were heard not only on the tables, but on 
chairs, stoves, stove-pipes, the walls of the house, the 
floor, the ceiling, and even sometimes o % n the hands, 
feet, heads, and teeth of sitters. Thus the warfare went 
on ; the world exposing its folly in attempting to expose 
Spiritualism, and the angel- world daily handing out 
new demonstrations of power. 

There is a proverb, that " the gods first make mad 
those whom they would destroy." In this case, it is 
literally true ; for there has never yet been an argument 
adduced against Spiritualism, but that weighs with all 
of its force against the religion, science, or profession 
of the one making the argument. The mocking priests 
demanded that Jesus should come down from the cross, 
and they would believe ; but he could not come down 
to satisfy a scoffing mob : so priests now, often with as 
much audacity and little sense, throw themselves back 
on their dignity, and demand the production of mani- 
festations impossible under the circumstances. One of 
these specimens of the genus homo, in a discussion with 
us, positively forbade the introduction of human testi- 
mony. Human beings were liable to be deceived, and 
some would lie ; so he would not take even sworn testi- 
mony that tables had been seen to move, concussions 
heard, and pencils seen to write without any visible 
agency. Nothing would do but the production of such 
phenomena in that audience, at that time. Our reply 
was, that certain conditions were necessary, which could 
not obtain in a promiscuous assembly ; that any person 
proposing to do any thing had a right to state the con- 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 199 

ditions upon which he could do the thing, and no one 
had a right to demand the production of the phenomena 
until all the conditions had been obeyed. "If it can 
be done anywhere, it can be done here," was his reply ; 
"and now is the time. We do not care what has been 
done elsewhere : produce your manifestations here, and 
we will believe." 

To illustrate the absurdity of his position, suppose 
sleep to be the phenomenon in question. A hundred 
witnesses swearing that they had slept, and seen others 
sleep, would not convince him : he would demand of the 
one who affirmed that one-third of every healthy per- 
son's time is spent in sleep, that he should lie down on 
the rostrum, and go to sleep in the presence of the audi- 
ence to convince him. Is there one who reads this 
book who could do it ? We think not. The conditions 
of sleep do not obtain under such circumstances. The 
fact of trying to go to sleep as a test would keep one 
awake if he had not slept in six months. The light in 
the room, the magnetism of the audience, and all other 
conditions, would go to prevent sleep. Any one can 
sleep better in the dark than in well-lighted apart- 
ments. Now, if the opposers will learn that conditions 
for good spirit-manifestations are required to be quite 
as negative as for sleep, they will cease to exhibit so 
much folly in their opposition. There is not an opposer 
of Spiritualism in the world to-day, who does not re- 
quire conditions for certain manifestations in his daily 
business that he obstinately refuses to give to the spirit- 
world. 

The following incident faithfully illustrates the ab- 
surd position taken by a majority of opposers. We 



200 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

were invited by a friend, a photographist, to go to his 
gallery, and sit for a picture. We had hardly entered 
the room, when our friend, in a good-natured way, 
commenced a tirade against Spiritualism. A dark cir- 
cle he would not sit in under any circumstances ; and, 
as to other conditions, they were only an excuse behind 
which to hide fraud, deception, and falsehood. u In 
fact," said he, ." I get mad every time I hear the word 
c conditions.' " — " And yet," said I, " you require con- 
ditions every time you take a photograph. I can take 
a better likeness with my printing-press than you can 
with your camera, if you will permit me first to destroy 
your conditions. You first require the subject to sit 
passive and quiet. He must be willing you should take 
a picture ; your camera must be properly adjusted ; you 
require just such an amount of light ; and it must come 
from the right direction. Then, by having your chem- 
icals prepared with mathematical precision, and your 
plates just right, you can do part of your work ; yet you 
are compelled to go into the dark before you can de- 
velop a picture. 

" Now understand one thing : the chemicals spirits use 
in coming in communion with earth are as much finer 
than those used by yourself as heaven is higher than 
earth. You, who require such implicit yielding to such 
subtile conditions, are the last one who should fall out 
with that word, or object to the idea it contains. Now, 
you ask mediums to go into a hall, and on the rostrum 
produce certain kinds of spirit-manifestation : they will 
do it when you go to the same hall, on to the same ros- 
trum, and, under the same circumstances, produce genu- 
ine and good photographic likenesses." 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 201 

Thus it is : the man could not see until shown by 
this illustration that his argument weighed quite as 
heavily against his own occupation as against Spirit- 
ualism. 

The man who enters the telegraph-office, tears the 
batteries from it, cuts the wires, and then demands from 
the operator communications from distant cities, is quite 
as sensible as those, who, after destroying all the condi- 
tions of spirit-manifestation, tauntingly demand spiritual 
phenomena. How much better to humbly sit in the 
quiet, and receive influxes from " over the river " ! 

We repeat, the Bible itself can not stand under the 
argument which kills Spiritualism. The whole Bible, 
with its stories a hundred times as large as any told by 
Spiritualists, is received on human hearsay testimony ; 
and yet living witnesses, who can be questioned and 
cross-questioned, are disbelieved. 

We were once, at a dinner-party, introduced to a 
deacon. Soon the conversation turned upon Spiritual- 
ism. Having just read the debate between Prof. Lee 
Miller and Prof. J. Stanley Grimes, we decided to 
borrow one of Mr. Miller's bomb-shells. After relating 
several incidents known to persons present, all of which 
were stanchly denied by the deacon, — for he felt that 
the life of his religion hung upon his zeal in disputing 
every thing he himself had not witnessed, — at length 
we addressed ourself to Bro. R. (who was sitting by 
our side), as though we wanted no one else to hear, yet 
determined that all at the table should hear. " I read 
the history of a very strange manifestation this morning, 
which, if it proves true, ought to set men to thinking," 
said we. " Ah ! what is it ? " said R. " It happeneoj in 



202 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

the old country," we replied. " A man was sick, and 
sent for a healing medium. Though he was not very sick, 
he thought he was going to die ; and so the medium 
thought at first. Soon, however, he obtained a commu- 
nication, stating that he would recover ; whereupon the 
man demanded a sign. Well, said the medium, as an 
evidence that you shall get well, logs of wood, stones, and 
heaps of earth, shall move without any visible agency. 
And the document adds that these things did move, — 
that stones, and heaps of earth, of many tons' burthen, 
moved, to all appearance, of their own accord ; and the 
man got well." We had hardly got through with our 
story, when our deacon asked, " Where did you say that 
happened ? " — " In the old country," we responded. " I 
would like to see the papers for that," ejaculated the 
deacon : " I know it never occurred. If such things 
can be done anywhere, why not here ? why locate them 
so far from home ? No one but an insane person could 
swallow such a story." 

We permitted him to blow until his ammunition was 
spent, and then coolly responded, " Deacon, if you will 
turn to 2 Kings xx., you will find the story. Hezekiah 
was the sick man ; Isaiah was the medium ; and the whole 
earth moved backward ten degrees to convince a man 
that a boil would not kill him. Now do you believe 
the story?" His only response was, "It is unfair to 
catch a man on a pin-hook." It may be unfair ; but 
we have to do just such work occasionally. It serves 
to illustrate the admixture of credulity and incredulity 
in the religions of the day. 

We now affirm, that, if modern Spiritualism is a delu- 
sion, it is a giant delusion. Not only has it utterly 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 203 

baffled the skill of opposers, whose cry has been, " Away 
with it ! " " Let it be crucified ! " but who can take a retro- 
spective view of its work without an inexpressible degree 
of surprise ? Twenty-two years ago, it was nothing, — 
not a book except the Bible written in its behalf, and 
that was regarded more as a dead letter than any thing 
else ; not a press to advocate its claims ; not a lecturer 
in the field ; not a medium in the country ; not a be- 
liever in the world. At that time one figure, and 
that a cipher, told all there was of Spiritualism. Not 
a quarter of a century since, it commenced amid the 
most determined opposition, has waded through it, and 
marched steadily on, until now its mediums are counted 
by thousands, and it would require a column and a 
half of u The New-York Ledger," set in agate type, 
to hold the names and post-office addresses of its public 
lecturers. Its weekly and monthly periodicals, scattered 
like autumn leaves, are read with more enthusiasm and 
delight than ever before. New volumes are continually 
being issued from its presses ; its literature is being writ- 
ten and translated into foreign languages ; and thus it 
spreads with a rapidity unequaled by any religion ever 
known before. 

Now, considering the machinery already in running 
order for spreading Spiritualism, — its local, county, 
state, and national associations ; the mediums and talent 
already in its ranks ; and the number of living witnesses 
there are to its truths, — where will it be on the day of its 
fiftieth anniversary? Where won't it be? Another 
question : Where will its opposers be at that time ? 
They will be where Pharaoh's "fat kine " were, after 
comincr in contact with " the seven lean kine." 



204 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

Modern Spiritualism, though born in a manger not 
twenty-five years since, is now the only positive religion 
in the world. All other religious theories live upon their 
negative elements. Ask almost any member of a popu- 
lar church why he belongs where he does ; and, if you 
get a true answer, it will be about as follows : " Oh ! I 
must have somewhere to go : I have nothing to do, and 
there is no other place of amusement for me to attend 
on Sunday ; and so I go to church. Why should I not ? 
My father and mother always did the same thing ; my 
friends and associates go there ; we have good music, and 
a smart preacher, who preaches smooth things to fashion- 
able ears : in fact, the current sets that way, and I drift 
with it." Another goes to be in fashion ; another to 
exhibit fine clothing ; another to get the custom of some 
one who attends ; another to see how church-people dress, 
hear who is married, who is dead ; and so forth, to the 
end of the chapter. 

Ask again, " What were you before you were a Meth- 
odist, Baptist, or Presbyterian? " and you will probably 
be answered, " Why, I wasn't any thing : I never be- 
longed to any other church or party." If you find one 
of a thousand who has left one religious church, and 
joined another, he has, as a general thing, done it with- 
out any change of faith or opinion. Some local disturb- 
ance or jealousy has been the cause of the change. Not 
more than half of those who belong to the church to-day 
know what the peculiar tenets of their church are ; and 
six out of eight who do can not give a rational reason 
for their belief. 

Now, go out among the Spiritualists, whose millions 
of converts have come from atheists, infidels, and every 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 205 

church in Christendom, and ask any one of them why he 
or she is a Spiritualist, and you ^ill be pointed to some 
peculiar test, or some beautiful clause of our philosophy 
which arrested their attention, led them to a further 
investigation, and finally forced them out of their church. 
One said to us, " When my spirit-mother came and 
talked with me, and when I had learned that my wife, 
whom I regarded as dead, was still alive, my religion, my 
church, my friends, my popularity, and my prejudices 
were not all strong enough to hold me." 

When Rev. A. J. Frishbach turned his back on his 
church and salary, to preach these heaven-born truths, 
he was asked why he did it? His reply was, "I have 
seen the angels." Glorious privilege ! Is it not enough 
to requite all our toil ? 

Ministers have left large congregations and fat salaries 
to become fellow-servants with angels. Lawyers have 
renounced their profession for the sake of these heaven- 
born truths. Husbands have been compelled to leave 
their wives, and wives their husbands, children have 
been turned away from their own homes, and parents 
forsaken in their old age, for their communion with those 
on the other side. Students, filled with all the ardor 
and vigor of youth, with the most flattering prospects 
ahead of them, have been driven from their colleges in 
disgrace, because of their allegiance to these higher 
powers. 

Thus Spiritualism proves itself a positive philosophy, 
enabling those who embrace it to forsake all, and stem 
the flood of opposition, for its truths. The author of 
these pages is personally acquainted with two ladies, one 
of them the wife of a Presbyterian minister, who were 



206 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

by their husbands driven to the alternative of renoun- 
cing their Spiritualism or going to the lunatic asylum. 
They both, though more sane than their husbands and 
church-going neighbors, chose the latter, preferring a 
life of imprisonment among the insane, rather than one 
of ease and luxury based on their want of fidelity to 
their risen friends and the God who spake in their own 
souls. 

The flames of slander, calumny, and persecution 
through which we have passed in consequence of our 
having turned from a former belief, the poverty we have 
endured because of our allegiance to our friends on the 
other side, could not have been borne, had it not been 
for the living evidence which almost hourly came to us, 
of the truth and divinity of our cause. That, together 
with the angelic forces backing us up, would enable us 
to " run through a troop or leap over a wall." 

" A scrip on my back, 

And a staff in my hand, 
I march on in haste 

Through an enemy's land : 
The road may be rough, 

But it can not be long ; 
I'll smooth it with hope 

And I'll cheer it with song." 

A word on the quality of the converts to Spiritualism 
might not be amiss, although the argument drawn from 
quantity or quality is not relied upon to prove it true. 
The evidence of its truth to us is the same whether 
there were another believer in the world or not. Nor 
does our faith hang; on the intelligence of those who 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 207 

believe, but upon a combination of biblical and modern 
facts with a philosophy which adapts itself to the wants 
of the human soul : so with every Spiritualist. The 
number and intelligence of those slain by its power only 
proves to us that facts which we perceive are univer- 
sally adapting themselves to the intelligent everywhere. 

The myriads who have flocked around the standard 
of Spiritualism have, in many instances, been men and 
women of giant intellect. It will not be disputed that 
Robert Hare, Robert Owen, Hon. Robert Dale Owen, 
Hon. Joshua R. Giddings, Hon. N. P. Talmadge, Hon. 
J. W. Edmonds, Hon. B. F. Wade, and Wm. Lloyd 
Garrison, are men of brains. They are among those 
slain by its power. 

Robert Hare, Robert Owen, and Robert Dale Owen, 
were thoroughly posted with regard to all the theologies 
as well as the literature of the age. They were known 
the world over to be stanch and rigid atheists. They 
had withstood the batteries of all the pulpits in the land ; 
and bundles upon bundles of quills were used up in try- 
ing to write their atheism down : but all to no purpose. 
Robert Owen had put to flight all the ministers in the 
land ; but he, as well as his son, and Prof. Hare of the 
Smithsonian Institute, was at last compelled to yield 
to spirit-voices. Two of these sires are traveling on in 
the sunshine of the spirit-world, while the other is fill- 
ing places of trust in our own government, and writing 
and lecturing on Spiritualism. 

N. P. Talmadge and Joshua R. Giddings have also 
left the Indian summer of this life, and gone to help form 
a battery in the brighter summer-land. While these 
"noble dead" are thus employed, Judge Edmonds 



208 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

is writing alternately on Spiritualism and Jurispru- 
dence. 

Were we to leave this country, and go to the Old 
World, we should find the Queen of England always hav- 
ing a place fixed at the table for her departed consort. 
She has not a doubt that he occupies the " vacant chair " 
which she causes to be provided for him. On the au- 
thority of u The New- York Sun," we can state that the 
Empress Eugenie attends circles every day ; while it is 
well known that Louis Napoleon is a Spiritualist, even 
in person attending the circles held by the brothers 
Davenport, and giving them fine presents as tokens of 
his appreciation of the powers manifesting through them. 
Thus Spiritualism proves itself adapted alike to the king 
on his throne and the beggar in his hovel. 

Still another argument on the power of Spiritualism 
might be based upon the fact of its opposers, one after 
another, laying down the weapons of warfare, and final- 
ly, many of them, taking up their line of march with 
it. The weaker and less strategetic power in every 
battle must yield to the stronger. The test of strength 
in the powers engaged in this warfare can be told in 
the fact that there are few able advocates of Spiritual- 
ism to-day, who did not graduate in the field of opposi- 
tion. Prof. Leo Miller used all his talents and educa- 
tion, and spent several of the last years of his life, in 
assailing Spiritualism. E. V. Wilson was told by spirits 
who appeared to him as Jesus did to Paul, that he must 
ground the weapons of his rebellion. Dr. P. B. Ran- 
dolph got tired of the warfare, and concluded he would 
sail with the popular current. He tried to write and 
preach Spiritualism into its grave ; but " found it hard 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 209 

to kick against the pricks." His efforts recoiled on his 
own head : he was compelled to return to the religion he 
so grossly slandered. Dr. J. B. Dodd wrote a book 
against Spiritualism ; but the printer's ink had scarcely 
dried on it, when he had renounced it, and declared 
himself a Spiritualist. We ourself went into a twelve- 
years' crusade against Spiritualism (those who read our 
writings, and listened to our sermons and debates, can 
judge with what amount of ability) ; but, like others, 
we were compelled to surrender. D. W. Hull, our 
brother " after the flesh," after spending six years in 
preparation to whip our Spiritualism out of us, whipped 
himself into it, and has become an eyesore to all op- 
posers. Thus it is : the " Sauls of Tarsus " are permitted 
to carry the warfare just so far, w T hen, lo ! they find 
themselves smitten with blindness from the spirit-world. 

With all these facts staring us in the face, who can 
doubt that Spiritualism, whether true or false, is a giant 
well worthy the steel of Orthodox ministers and Har- 
vard professors ? No position, no learning, no religion, 
no power, has been a match for it. It has gone on 
from conquering to conquest. As we view its onward 
march, we are reminded of the language of Gamaliel 
of old to the opposers of ancient Spiritualism, — 

" And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, 
and let them alone : for, if this counsel or this work be 
of men, it will come to nought ; but if it be of God, ye 
can not overthrow it, lest, haply, ye be found even to 
fight against God." — Acts v. 38, 39. 

Spiritualism has indeed, if this test be taken, proved 
itself of God. 

Though Spiritualism is a giant, it is not a huge, un- 

14 



210 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

comely monster to be dreaded. If a delusion at all, it 
is a charming delusion. On this division of the subject, 
it is needless to remark at length, as our first chapter is 
a sufficient elucidation of this department of the sub- 
ject. We would only ask, Who would not enjoy the 
consolation of knowing that his friends whom the 
world calls dead still live ? Where is the devoted wife 
who would not enjoy social intercourse with the com- 
panion recently departed from her embrace ? Spiritual- 
ism has opened the eyes of many thousands to see the 
beyond ; and myriads who once groped in darkness 
are now receiving messages of love and wisdom from 
the angel world. Is that delusion ? Then let us live 
and die charmed with just such delusion ! 

In a Western city was a railroad-station agent, who 
was known, wherever known at all, as a Spiritualist. 
Persons of all grades of belief tried to persuade him to 
renounce his allegiance to his spirit-friends. They dis- 
played before his view, in glowing colors, the transitory 
glories of earth, which he might enjoy if he would only 
say nothing of his offensive Spiritualism ; but all to no 
purpose. He was finally told by a minister who could 
not resist the power of his honest logic, that such doc- 
trine did very well to live by, but would not sustain a 
soul in the moment of dissolution. " If," said the rev- 
erend, " I could be present at your death-bed, I would 
see you wring your hands, and cry for mercy ; then you 
would call for the consolations of the religion you now 
spurn for the effervescent bauble of Spiritualism." 

Said the brother, " If you are in the city when I am 
called to exchange worlds, you shall see whether your 
w r ords are true." 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 211 

In a few days from that time, upon a cold and icy 
morning, when coupling the cars together, his feet 
slipped, and the cars passed over his thighs, severing his 
limbs from his body. When, in a few moments, he was 
informed that his earthly career was drawing to a close, 
and if he had any thing to say, now was his last chance, 
after appointing one to attend to his business, he sent 
for his friends who had urged him to renounce his 
acquaintance with the angels. When they were all 
assembled, he spoke to the minister substantially as fol- 
lows : — 

"You expressed a desire to see a Spiritualist die. 
My time has come : now you shall be gratified. I have 
believed Spiritualism, and rejoiced for the past ten years 
in its consolations. Now I know, as I never did before, 
that it is true. As the flesh grows weaker, the spirit 
gains strength. I see the angels, I hear them sing : 
they are waiting for me" 

After a moment's pause, he continued, — 

" Some of my family belong to your church, and will 
want you to deliver my funeral-address. Will you 
promise to tell the audience that I was a Spiritualist, 
and died such ; that Spiritualism afforded a consolation 
which sustained me in a dying hour?" 

The minister promised, and kept his word. After 
the dying man obtained this promise, he seemed per- 
fectly resigned. He talked of his hope while strength 
lasted. Finally, after lying motionless and speechless, 
with his eyes closed a few moments, he opened them, 
and gazed on his friends for a brief period. His eyes 
sparkling all the while with an unearthly luster, he said, 
" They are calling ; I must go. Good-by ! " And in a 



212 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

moment his spirit was borne into the country where 
disputes on such questions are settled. 

Is this delusion ? Then let us live and die deluded ! 
If it is a delusion which has made us happier and better 
for the last six years of our life ; if a delusion has sus- 
tained us amid trials and troubles, and enabled us each 
day to say, " Though I walk through the valley of the 
shadow of death, I will fear no evil," — then, welcome, 
delusion ! May thy cords be lengthened, and thy stakes 
strengthened, until thy banners wave over the ruins of 
error and superstition, and every heart is made glad 
with a knowledge of angelic communion ! 

" Whispers of Eden given 
Greet mine ear, 
As if nearer bringing heaven, — 

Still more near ; 
Calling upward, sweetly calling 

To the sky, 
Wait, my weary soul to welcome 
By and by. 
Oh ! how my longing soul will spring 
To rise and join them on the wing." 

Now, we affirm that Spiritualism is not a delusion. 
On this, as on the last division of this subject, we will 
do but little more than to refer our readers to the fore- 
going pages of this volume. If the evidences already 
presented can be avoided, any amount of just such evi- 
dence is worthless. 

If Samuel, Moses, Elijah, Jesus, and others returned 
in the ages gone, then they proved that the dead can 
return. If our friends who loved and visited us while 
in the flesh love us still, they will come to us with bless- 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 213 

ings. If the history of the one and twenty years last 
past is correct, they have, they do come. 

We have received so many tests, in so many ways, 
under so many varying circumstances, — many of which 
preclude the possibility of deception, — that we can not 
doubt. 

We know a little girl not yet four years old, who 
occasionally has the name of a departed friend come in 
raised letters on her arm. She is not old enough to 
think of deceiving, much less is she capable of decipher- 
ing the names of friends, or of writing; them if she knew 
them. Such evidences are unmistakable proofs of a 
supermundane power. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. 

Objections usually the Result of Ignorance — A British Lord and the Steamboat 

— Objections to the Telegraph — Objections to Abolitionism — God legislat- 
ed against Spiritualism — Necromancy; Definition of — The Objection proves 
Spiritualism — Hebrews inclined to apply to the Dead for Knowledge — Law 
indorsed Spiritualism — This Law abolished — Other Precepts of this Law 
not binding — Jesus violated this Law — Paul and John violated, and hence 
deserve Death — The Law good in its Place, and for its Time — Men inclined 
to worship Spirits which communicated — The Jewish Jehovah not an Infi- 
nite G-od — He incited the Jews to Crime — Jehovah jealous of other Spirits 

— God goes to Babel to find out concerning a Report — Moses a better Man 
than his God — Heathen Gods once Men upon Earth — Spirits should be 
Helps, not Masters — Jews worshiped Spirits; Abraham, Lot, Joshua, Peter, 
John — Law against Spiritualism had evil Results — Materialism the Results 
of that Law — Elihu a Clairvoyant Medium — Men not Clay — " Old Paths" 

— Contradictory Objections — Consistency a rare Jewel — All Things were 
once new — Protestantism once new — Catholic Argument against Protestant- 
ism — All Religions have run the same Gantlet — "Fanatical Methodists" — 
Novelty not against Truth — Men in this World are learning; may not others 
progress — Spiritualism not new — Martin Luther and the Spirits — Wesley 
and the Spirits — They are Devils — An old Charge — John the Baptist and Je- 
sus had a Devil — Every Reform was instigated by the Devil — Devil left the 
Church — Devil is Synonymous with Hatred of Progress — The Telescope, 
Fanning-Mill, Printing-Press, and Vaccination, all of the Devil — Devil discov- 
ered the Circulation of the Blood — Devil and Michael Servetus — Martyrdom 
of Servetus — The Devil and Vaccination — The Devil figuring as an Abolition- 
ist, Geologist, &c. — Has God sent a Scorpion for a Fish — What a God — The 
Existence of a Devil can not be reconciled with that of a good God — The 
Devil always proves himself right — Author of Progress — Devil a Myth — 
Conclusion. 

"TT7E believe it was Mr. Home who said, " An objec- 

V V tion can be stated in three lines, that it requires 

thirty pages to answer." Such is the fact. It is an 

easy matter to object to any thing ; but when a position 

214 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 215 

is fairly proved, then to present objections shows more 
frequently the stupidity than the erudition of the ob- 
jector. It requires no learning, logic, or tact to frame 
objections ; while it often requires even more than demon- 
stration to remove them. A British lord could prove 
that it was impossible for a boat to navigate the water 
without the aid of wind or tide ; and so positive was he 
in his objections, and they were based on such absolute 
knowledge (want of knowledge), that he prepared to 
eat the first steamboat, captain, crew, and all hands, that 
crossed the Atlantic. Men, however, nothing daunted 
at the threat of this old musty fogy, launched their boats ; 
and, even to this day, steamboats float on British waters. 

When the magnetic telegraph was first talked of, 
there were thousands of persons in this country who 
could prove the thing impossible. Long lists of objec- 
tions were presented ; " the letters could not get around 
or through the posts." Even if this objection could be 
removed, there were hundreds of others quite as for- 
midable. The telegraph, even including the Atlantic 
cable, has gone into successful operation ; and now there 
is hardly a man in the world who did not always know 
it could be done. 

Thirty years ago, there were thousands of church peo- 
ple who could prove that slavery was a " divine in- 
stitution," and abolitionism an insane, infidel, danger- 
ous heresy, originating under the direct influence of 
his Satanic Majesty, and leading the people by thousands 
to the bottomless pit. We should now expect objectors 
to know as much of Spiritualism. 

To a few of the most popular and strong objections, 
we will now pay our respects. 



216 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

Objection Nb.l. — God anciently made laws against 
getting knowledge from the dead. 

The precepts to which objectors refer may be found 
in the following words : — 

u When thou art come into the land which the Lord 
thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the 
abominations of those nations. There shall not be found 
among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter 
to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an 
observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a 
charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, 
or a necromancer. For all that do these things are an 
abomination unto the Lord ; and because of these abom- 
inations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from 
before thee." — Deut. xviii. 9-12. 

" Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither 
seek after wizards, to be defiled by them : I am the Lord 
your God." — Lev. xix. 31. 

" And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar 
spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I 
will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him 
off from among his people." — Lev. xx. 6. 

" And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them 
that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep 
and that mutter : should not a people seek unto their 
God ? for the living to the dead ? To the law and to 
the testimony : if they speak not according to this word, 
it is because there is no light in them." — Isa. viii. 
19, 20. 

We have quoted all these paragraphs in order to give 
the reader the full force of the objection ; for, if we can 
read our own heart, we have no design to keep back a 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 217 

word or thought that could in any way assist the object- 
or. These Scriptures can not easily be misunderstood. 
The first paragraph emphatically forbids necromancy, or 
the consulting of familiar spirits. Necromancy comes 
from two Greek words, nekros^ which means " dead," and 
mantia, the definition of which is " divination." Divina- 
tion, Webster defines as follows : " the act of divining, 
a foretelling of future events, the discovering things 
secret or obscure by the aid of superior beings or by 
other than human means." 

It will be seen by these definitions, that the Mosaic 
law forbade those under its jurisdiction getting knowl- 
edge from the dead. 

God is, or is not, the author of this law : if he is not 
its author, it should no more be quoted as authority here 
than though it occurred in the Mohammedan Koran. 
The laws against Salem witchcraft have as much au- 
thority in the investigation of Spiritualism as this, un- 
less God is directly or indirectly its author. But, if God 
is its author, it follows that he made laws against obtain- 
ing knowledge from the dead. Now, God certainly will 
not be accused of legislating against an ignis fatuus. If, 
as some suppose, the dead are totally unconscious, there 
would be no danger of people holding converse with 
them ; hence no necessity for this law. If, on the other 
hand, the dead are conscious, but can not hold inter- 
course with the living, there would be no necessity for 
this law. Whether the law is opposed to modern Spirit- 
ualism will be seen as we proceed. Two things are 
positively settled by this law. 

First, the Hebrews were inclined to apply to the dead 
for knowledge ; else there would have been no necessity 



218 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

for this enactment. Paul says, " The law is made for 
the disobedient " (1 Tim. i. 9). This is positive proof 
that they knew the fact of spirit-intercourse, and some 
of them believed in its utility, insomuch that it was 
necessary to have such a law. 

Second, the power making this law received the fact, 
or, instead of this law accompanied with these reasons, 
he would have informed them of their mistake. 

Wherever this law originated, it was a part of the 
law which was only " added because of transgression, 
until the seed should come" (Gal. hi. 19). This law 
has been found unworthy of a place in the divine econ- 
omy, and is among the things which have been abolished. 
(Eph. ii. 15; Col. ii. 14.) Is it possible that our Chris- 
tian friends are going to arraign and condemn Spiritual- 
ists for violating an old dead Jewish law ? If Spiritual- 
ists are guilty of a great crime in violating that law, 
what shall be done with Christians ? for the law is not any 
more positive in forbidding Spiritualism than in its pro- 
hibition of working on Saturday ; of mixing linen and 
wool together in garments ; of eating of swine's flesh 
and catfish. (Ex. xx. 10 ; Lev. xi. 7-11.) This same 
law emphatically forbids a man to mar as much as the 
corners of his beard ; but many Christians, and even 
ministers, who oppose Spiritualism because of precepts 
in the same law, shave two or three times every week 
of their lives. See Lev. xix. 27. 

If the law forbidding spirit-communion was divine, 
and of lasting obligation, then Jesus broke a divine law ; 
for he did hold a tete-d-tete with Moses and Elias after 
they had each been in the spirit-world several centuries. 
Paul also violated, when he conversed with Jesus after 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 219 

lie had spent several years in the higher life ; and John, 
for holding a conversation with his brother, deserved a 
punishment no less than death. (Lev. xx. 6.) Will 
the objector, for the sake of carrying out his objection, 
accuse all the New-Testament saints of violating the law 
of God? 

Now, we believe there are reasons (some of them 
good, and some not so good) for giving this law. If the 
objector should hear a father say to his eight-year-old 
child, "You shall not study algebra," would he, from 
that, conclude that the father was opposed to the study 
of algebra, or only that the child was not yet developed 
up to that study ; that minor studies must be conquered 
first ? And what would you think of the child, who, ten 
years after the father had said he should not study alge- 
bra, upon being requested by his teacher to enter upon 
the higher branches of mathematics, should respond, 
" It's wicked ; my father forbade it long ago " ? 

The case in our illustration is similar to the one pro- 
duced by the objector. The race was younger then than 
now, and was not educated up to the point where un- 
limited spirit-communication would not, with its good, 
have a mixture of evil. Men in those days believed 
that every spirit who communicated was a god ; indeed, 
this was the way Jehovah, the Jewish God, got his in- 
finity. We can not see how any one can read the de- 
scription of the person and character of this God, who 
presided over the Hebrew nation, without coming to 
the conclusion that he was either a myth or a departed 
human spirit. It is to be doubted whether the Jews 
would not have been a better people, had they not had 
such implicit confidence in their Jehovah. It was their 



220 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

God who said to Moses, " Avenge the children of Israel 
of the Midianites : afterward shalt thou be gathered 
unto thy people." — Num. xxxi. 2. 

This God goes on giving commands, which were ful- 
filled as follows : — 

" And they warred against the Midianites, as the 
Lord commanded Moses ; and they slew all the males. 
And they slew the kings of Midian, beside the rest of 
them that were slain ; namely, Evi and Rekem and 
Zur and Hur and Reba, five kings of Midian : Balaam, 
also, the son of Beor, they slew with the sword. And 
the children of Israel took all the women of Midian 
captives, and their little ones ; and took the spoil of all 
their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods. 
And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, and 
all their goodly castles, with fire." — Num. xxxi. 7-10. 

Notwithstanding this wholesale butchery, and burning 
of cities, the Lord was in a rage because they had not 
been more heartless, and told Moses to say, — 

u Now, therefore, kill every male among the little ones, 
and kill every woman that hath known man by lying 
with him. But all the women-children that have not 
known a man by lying with him, keep alive for your- 
selves." — Num. xxxi. 17, 18. 

The reading of this Scripture shows that their im- 
plicit confidence in their God led them to commit deeds 
of darkness, which, left to themselves, they were not 
bloodthirsty enough to undertake. This is proof posi- 
tive, not only that they were led to deeds of crime by 
their belief in the infallibility of communications coming 
from their Jehovah, but that that God could not have 
been the Author of the universe. Undoubtedly, a lead- 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 221 

ing reason why the prohibition against seeking the dead 
for knowledge was given could be found in the follow- 
ing language : — 

" For thou shalt worship no other god ; for the Lord, 
whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God. Lest thou 
make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and 
they go a whoring after their gods, and do sacrifice unto 
their gods, and one call thee, and thou eat of his sacri- 
fice ; and thou take of their daughters unto thy sons, and 
their daughters go a whoring after their gods, and make 
thy sons go a whoring after their gods." — Ex. xxxiv. 
14-16. 

Here the gods of the land are recognized as being 
gods in every sense that this jealous-hearted Jewish 
God can claim that title. The God of whom it is said, 
" And the Lord came down to see the city and the 
tower which the children of men builded " (Gen. xi. 6), 
is not the Author of the universe. The following lan- 
guage is a better description of a bigoted, jealous human 
spirit than of the Creator of heaven and earth : — 

u And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down ; 
for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of 
Egypt, have corrupted themselves ; they have turned 
aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them ; 
they have made them a molten calf, and have worshiped 
it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy 
gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the 
land of Egypt. And the Lord said unto Moses, I have 
seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people : 
now, therefore, let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot 
against them, and that I may consume them ; and I will 
make of thee a great nation. And Moses besought 



222 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

the Lord his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath 
wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought 
forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and 
with a mighty hand ? Wherefore should the Egyptians 
speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out ; to 
slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from 
the face of the earth ? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and 
repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abra- 
ham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swar- 
est by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multi- 
ply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land 
that I have spoken of I will give unto your seed, and 
they shall inherit it for ever. And the Lord repented 
of the evil which he thought to do unto his people." — 
Ex. xxxii. 7-14. 

No one now worships a God who was so spiteful and 
changeable as this representation of the Deity. Moses, 
in this instance, is decidedly the superior in every sense 
of the word. God acknowledges it, by yielding to Moses' 
superior wisdom, and not doing what he thought he 
would do unto his people. We do not say this ignorant 
bigot, calling himself God, was not Jehovah : that, for 
aught we know, might have been his name ; but we do 
say that this whiffling, jealous Deity has not sense 
enough to govern the world. This is abundantly proved 
by his changing his plan of action in obedience to the 
superior wisdom of Moses. 

The heathen gods were once men upon earth. After 
passing to the world of spirits, and returning and mani- 
festing themselves, they were at once recognized as 
deities, and, of course, esteemed infallible. Spiritual- 
ism, to-day, would do more harm than good if every 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 223 

Spiritualist received as infallible every communication 
coming from that source : hence, until people arrive at 
the position where they can take the spirits as helps, 
teachers, not masters, they are not prepared for com- 
munion with them. Let authority give place to reason, 
and men weigh communications from the other shore 
as they do advice from friends here, and communications 
from spirits can do no more harm than would result 
from friend counseling with friend in this life. 

The Jews, quite as much as any other nation, were 
inclined to worship every spirit that communicated. 
Abraham and Lot each bowed to the earth before the 
angels which came to them. When an angel, who was 
emphatically called a man, appeared to Joshua, the 
record says, — 

" And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did 
worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto 
his servant ? " — Josh. v. 14. 

When Peter saw Moses and Elias on the mount, his 
first exclamation w T as, — 

" Lord, it is good for us to be here : if thou wilt, let 
us make here three tabernacles ; one for thee, and one 
for Moses, and one for Elias." — Matt. xvii. 4. 

As much as to say, " When we would worship you, 
we would go into one of these tabernacles; when we 
would worship Moses, we would go into another ; and, 
when we would worship Elias, we would go into an- 
other." When John saw his brother a prophet, he fell 
at his feet to worship him. With that idea, the Spirit- 
ualism of to-day would lead to idolatry, and hence be 
wrong ; but Spiritualists have advanced to where they 
can treat their spirit-friends as familiar friends, and yet 



224 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

not receive them as authority. With this advancement, 
we claim that spirit-communion can not result in harm : 
those who have not got so far along would do well to 
let it alone. 

The law forbidding spirit-communion had its evil as 
well as its good results. While it may have kept the 
Jews from idolatry, and some other crimes that they 
otherwise might have committed, it drove many of their 
best minds into the most gross materialism. Had they 
been permitted to consult the dead, their best writers 
never could have said, — 

" For the living know that they shall die : but the 
dead know not any thing, neither have they any more 
a reward ; for the memory of them is forgotten. Also 
their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now per- 
ished ; neither have they any more a portion for ever 
in any thing that is done under the sun." — Eccl. ix. 
5,6. 

Solomon was not the only writer who occasionally 
gave utterance to such infidel sentiments. Job and 
David more than once utter the same ; but Elihu, both 
a clairvoyant and clairaudient medium, says, — 

" Now a thing was secretly brought to me, and mine 
ear received a little thereof. In thoughts from the vis- 
ions of the night, when deep sleep falleth on men, fear 
came upon me, and trembling, which made all my bones 
to shake. Then a spirit passed before my face; the 
hair of my flesh stood up : it stood still, but I could not 
discern the form thereof: an image was before mine 
eyes, there was silence, and I heard a voice, saying, 
Shall mortal man be more just than God ? shall a man 
be more pure than his Maker ? Behold, he put no trust 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 225 

in liis servants ; and his angels he charged with folly : 
how much less in them that dw^ell in houses of clay, 
whose foundation is in the dust, which are crushed be- 
fore the moth ? " — Job iv. 12-19. 

This " spirit which passed before his face," causing 
him to quake and tremble, as hundreds of mediums now 
do, taught him the important lesson that men are not 
clay, but " dwell in houses of clay." Thus all can see 
the result, on the one hand, of spirit-communion, and, 
on the other, of its prohibition. All the texts usually 
produced by materialists to prove the dead unconscious 
are the result of the enactment against Spiritualism, and 
consequent non-intercourse with the dead. 

Objection No. 2. — The Bible says, — 

u Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, 
and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and 
walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls." — 
Jer. vi. 16. 

It does not do to forsake the u old paths." Spiritual- 
ism is new ; if true, it should have been discovered 
prior to the nineteenth century. 

It sounds a little strange to hear this objection urged 
by the same speaker, and almost in the same breath 
with the one just noticed. Many of the opponents of 
Spiritualism seem to have lost their regard for consist- 
ency, if not for truth. In one breath, Spiritualism is an 
old sin God was compelled more than three thousand 
years ago to put down by legislation ; in the next it is 
something new, and for that reason they have gone to 
work with such zeal to tear it to pieces that one would 
almost think they would pluck a new moon from the 
heavens if it were in their power to do so. Consistency 

15 



226 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

is too rare a jewel to come into general use among 
those who have enlisted in the battle against the angel- 
world. If Spiritualism is an invention of the nineteenth 
century, the last delusion of the Devil, God did not 
make laws against it in the days of Moses. On the 
other hand, if laws were made against it then, the ob- 
jection of " new things " is 'ad captandum. 

Has the objector ever considered that there are swords 
that have two edges ? that, when persons go it blind, 
they occasionally catch an argument by the blade, and 
cut their own fingers ? Such is the fact in this case. 

Suppose Spiritualism to be a child of the nineteenth 
century : the argument of new things weighed as heavily 
against Jesus and his associates as it now does against 
Spiritualism. Christianity was so new in the days of 
Paul, that it is said of certain philosophers, — 

" And they took him, and brought him unto Areop- 
agus, saying, May we know what this new doctrine 
whereof thou speakest is ? For thou bringest certain 
strange things to our ears : we would know, therefore, 
what these things mean. For all the Athenians, and 
strangers which were there, spent their time in nothing 
else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing." — 
Acts xvii. 19-21. 

Every thing had a beginning, and was new in the 
days of its infancy. We remember to have heard a 
learned professor -say, " Monkeys existed before men, 
and fishes are older than philosophers." Protestant- 
ism in the days of Martin Luther was new, and Catholi- 
cism was old: what Protestant thence concludes his 
own religion false, and Catholicism true ? 

Had the u old path " argument used by our Catholic 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 227 

fathers had the desired effect, there would not have 
been a Protestant in the world to-day. Ministers who 
are now preaching against Spiritualism because of its 
novelty, would, in that case, have been confessing their 
sins to a Catholic priest, and we to-day would have been 
eating the actual body and drinking the blood of Jesus 
Christ, and enduring a tyranny such as is only known 
within the limits of the " Eternal City." 

When Martin Luther first made his discoveries, Lu- 
theranism was new, and, per consequence, every follower 
of Martin Luther was either a knave, fool, or fanatic, 
as could be proved by every Catholic priest in the Old 
World. Lutheranism, however, spread, notwithstanding 
the barking of Catholic dogs. A century was quite 
sufficient to kill the cry of " Novelty ; " and Protestantism 
could be respected and venerated because of its age. 
Lutheranism is not alone ; other religious theories must 
run the same gantlet. When Methodism first began to 
force itself upon the people, it, too, was a new invention 
of the Devil to lead fanatics to hell : this could be proved 
by every Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, or Baptist in 
the land. Methodism has lived a century ; and, as a re- 
sult, those who abominated it, and would have sent every 
" fanatical Methodist" to hell (but words could not do 
it), now respect it as " our sister church." 

If all the theories in the world have lived through 
the warfare against new things, we will risk but that 
Spiritualism will take deeper root and grow more healthy 
and beautiful as a result of this attack. 

Now, admitting that Spiritualism is new, is its novelty 
against its truth ? We think not. Men existed on the 
earth at least . one hundred and fifty thousand years 



228 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

before they learned to communicate with each other by 
means of the electric telegraph ; yet who refused to re- 
ceive the news of Lee's surrender, because, a century 
since, it would have taken it a month to go from Rich- 
mond to Chicago ? Persons will accept of improvements 
everywhere except in religious matters : how strange ! 
Are all who have died fools? Supposing they could 
not have communicated prior to 1848 : men in this world 
have made many discoveries since that time ; may not 
those on the other side have discovered something ? 
Mesmer, who discovered the science of mesmerism, and 
Benjamin Franklin, who taught men how to control the 
lightning, are each in the land of the so-called dead. 
Now, while Prof. Morse was discovering and perfecting 
a new mode of communication between mortals, why 
can not Newton, Franklin, and others discover a plan 
by which the dead and living can converse ? Certainly 
such a discovery would be of vast importance ; then why 
object ? 

But Spiritualism is not new : it is traced through all 
time, and found among all people. We have not the 
space here to devote to this proposition. The reader 
who is curious to look into this department of the sub- 
ject is requested to go or send to the bookstore of 
Wiiliam White & Co., No. 158, Washington Street, 
Boston, and get some of their numerous books on this 
question. 

It is enough for us here to say that phenomenal Spir- 
itualism was patent in the days of Luther. Who has 
not read the account of Luther seizing and throwing an 
inkstand at a spirit whom he supposed to be the Devil ? 
The manifestations in the Wesley family, an account of 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 229 

which John Wesley himself records, were quite equal 
to those occurring in the family of John D. Fox. Dr. 
Adam Clarke, Carvosso, and other Methodist divines, 
record as wonderful spirit-manifestations as there are in 
the year 1869. 

Objection No. 3. — These manifestations are from the 
Devil. Paul says, — 

" Even him whose coming is after the working of 
Satan, with all power and signs and lying wonders." — 
2 Thess. ii. 9. 

John says, — 

" They are spirits of devils, working miracles, which 
go forth unto the kings of the earth, and of the whole 
world, to the battle of the great day of God Almighty." 
— Rev. xvi. 14. 

The charge of demoniac possession, like the " new 
things " argument, is an old one. When John the Bap- 
tist commenced his work, the popular church said, " He 
hath a devil" (Matt. xi. 18). When Jesus came, 
speaking as never man spake, and doing as never man 
did, a hypocritical church said, " This fellow doth not 
cast out devils but by Beelzebub the prince of the 
devils." — Matt. xii. 24. 

Jesus gave his followers to understand that this ever 
would be the case. He said, " If they have called 
the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more 
shall they call them of his household? " — Matt. x. 25. 

With this warning in advance, and a knowledge that 
our predecessors in every work of reform have endured 
the same charge, we are bold to endure such charges. 
If the Church of all ages can be believed, the Devil has 
originated and put into successful operation every re- 



230 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

form, and that in spite of the Church, which has ever 
been faithful to warn its dupes that every reformer was 
the especial agent of his Satanic Majesty. 

According to the church of Jesus' time he had a devil : 
but he and his devil succeeded in putting his work into 
successful operation, and matters went on swimmingly, 
until they succeeded in calling out a large party of fol- 
lowers ; but, in proportion as they increased in numbers 
and power, they became corrupt, until the so-called 
Christian Church became so terribly wicked, that the 
Devil would have nothing further to do with it. His 
Majesty left them to u paddle their own canoe," and 
began anon to work through heretics, who were com- 
pelled, on account of their good works, to leave the 
Church. 

During the whole period known as the dark ages, 
there was not a martyr burned at the stake, but that was 
under the influence of the Devil. That word " devil" 
has always served as a scapegoat to pack its ignorance 
and hatred of progress on. It requires no tact or learn- 
ing to say " devil," and it often does to explain various 
phenomena hidden behind that word. This is, perhaps, 
the main reason why the old gentleman has had so much 
to carry. Even Martin Luther told his followers that the 
Coper nican system of astronomy, including the rotun- 
dity of the earth, was directly from the Devil. 

The telescope was of satanic origin. The first fan- 
ning-mill was " a wicked invention to raise the Devil's 
wind." The inventor was informed, that, if he wanted 
to separate his wheat and chaff, he should get down 
upon his knees, and ask God to send him a good dispen- 
sation of air ; or, if not humble enough to do that, to 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 231 

patiently wait until God in his mercy chose to send him 
wind. Notwithstanding the windmill was the Devil's 
invention, it soon gained such a hold on the populace, 
that a Presbyterian could, without any scruples of con- 
science, eat bread made of the wheat which had passed 
through the Devil's windmill. We would not be under- 
stood as representing that the Church sanctioned or even 
tolerated such impiety. It did not. Ever faithful to 
its duty, the Church disfellowshiped every member who 
had so far followed his diabolical leadership as to eat the 
bread made of wheat which had been cleansed by this 
"infernal machine." Alas for the weakness of man! 
how T soon is he led astray ! The Devil's windmill has 
become so popular, that ministers use bread, even in the 
communion service, that was made of the wheat which 
had gone through the Devil's windmill. Thus the Devil 
ahvays carries the day. 

The man who first applied water to the propelling of 
a sawmill was put to death for being in league with 
the Devil. The first printing-press was invented and 
run by the Devil. It was the Devil, who, through Har- 
vey, discovered the circulation of the blood. This same 
Devil enabled Michael Servetus to discover that a mathe- 
matical impossibility could not be a theological truth. 
When this agent of his Majesty the Devil was told that 
in the Godhead there were three persons at least, and 
only one at most, he w r as inclined to doubt it, and won- 
dered if that would not lc ad to the idea of three Grods. 
" Oh, no ! " the response was : " there is but one God, and 
he is made of three distinct individualities." — " Well, 
taking either of these three separately, would he be a 
God, an angel, or a man?" His questions were too 



232 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

well put : none but a Devil could invent such questions. 
When he was asked to sing, — 

" Have faith the same, 

With endless shame, 
For all the human race ; 

For hell is crammed 

With infants damned, 
Without a day of grace," 

he dared to question the truth of the song, and the pro- 
priety of singing it. He -was at once set down for a 
Devil-possessed heretic, and condemned to death. John 
Calvin, after signing his death-warrant, led the mob that 
burned him over a slow fire, for the crime of disputing 
old theories. As usual, the Devil in this was successful. 
The whole world now acknowledge that Servetus was 
right, and Calvin and his horde of bigoted followers 
wrong. 

" The world goes round and round, 
The genial seasons run, 
And ever the truth comes uppermost, 
And ever is justice done." 

It was in the present century that ministers came out 
in long printed statements (for by this time the Devil 
had made his printing-press popular enough for their 
use) to prove that vaccination to prevent small-pox 
was an invention of the Devil to change men to a kind 
of quadruped ; that vaccination would surely result in 
producing horns on the heads of those who submitted 
to any such satanic operation to prevent this dreaded 
contagion. The Devil originated the science of geology, 
set on foot the abolition movement; in fact, has led 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 233 

every band of reformers in the world. Now, his last 
great work is in Spiritualism. All we have to say is, 
Let him work. He has ever proved himself right, and 
we have confidence to believe it ever will be thus ; that 
is, if he has figured as largely in every new movement 
as he has been accused of doing. 

Now, admitting for the sake of the argument, the 
existence, power, and malignity of this almighty Devil, 
how is the fact to be harmonized with the existence, 
power, wisdom, and goodness of our loving Father ? 
Whatever may be said of Spiritualists now, millions of 
them were once honest and earnest praying Christians. 
For years and years, they made it their daily duty to 
turn to their God and Bible : they have read again and 
again, — 

" And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you ; 
seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and it shall be opened 
unto you. For every one that asketh, receive th ; and 
he that seeketh, findeth ; and to him that knocketh it 
shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you 
that is a father, will he give him a stone ? or, if he ask 
a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent ? or, if he 
shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion ? If ye 
then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your 
children ; how much more shall your heavenly Father 
give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" — Luke 
xi. 9-13. 

Is this the way the All-Father has answered their 
prayers after telling them that if they would ask 
they should receive ? They have prayed earnestly for 
the Holy Ghost, have ever been willing to take this 
prayer-hearing God at his word ; and God has answered 



234 THE QUESTION SETTLED. 

their prayer by opening the infernal regions, and peopling 
the air with quintillions of devils, whose only object is 
to deceive and lead the elect to hell, our angel-friends 
meantime being shut up in heaven, away from earth, 
weeping to see us deluded by deceiving spirits, and that 
in answer to our most sincere and devout prayers a 
thousand times repeated. Is this the God our opposers 
worship ? Is faith such a heartless cheat, baring the 
back thus for the Devil's rod ? In Heaven's name, if 
God is such a knave as this idea represents, it is well to 
serve the Devil ! We would not worship such a God if 
we could, and certainly could not if we would. That 
father who hands out myriads of scorpions and vipers to 
his weeping, starving children, is an angel of light com- 
pared with this treacherous knave called God, who thus 
deceives his trusting children. 

Nay, we will go farther, and apply this argument even 
to the existence of his Satanic Majesty. If the Devil 
exists, he exists either by the will and power of God or 
contrary to it. If he exists by the power of God, then 
God is responsible for all of his actions : he permits him 
to act when he could prevent it. We consider ourself 
responsible for all the evil there is in the world which we 
could prevent : so of God. But if Satan is eternal and 
almighty, if he exists contrary to the will of God, 
then God lacks either the power or wisdom to prevent 
the Devil deceiving and leading the world to hell. In 
one case, God is wicked ; in the other, weak. 

If the Church has been wrong in its cry of " Devil ! " 
after every reform, it may be in this. If, on the other 
hand, it was right, then we are proud of our leader : he 
has proved himself right in every instance, and we will 



THE QUESTION SETTLED. 235 

trust him in this. Progress is the order of the day ; and 
one only needs to read his history to be convinced that 
he is not only a progressionist, but the author of progress. 
Commencing with his first work, which was to open the 
eyes of a pair of poor blind idiots in the garden of Eden, 
and teach them to know good from evil, and ending 
the drama with Spiritualism, we indorse every act of 
his. We are proud to-day to take our position beside 
" Michael the archangel," and not bring a "railing ac- 
cusation against him." May he long live to put in 
motion all the latent machinery of human progress ! 

Reader, we can not close this chapter without saying, 
in all candor, your Devil is only a myth. Give the 
frontal brain the control of the back brain, and all the 
devils and satyrs will flee. They can not stand before 
well-developed causality and comparison. 

That reader and writer may be enabled to resist all 
the devils growing out of a " lack of knowledge ; " that 
we may be enabled to see the hand of God in the wide 
field of human progress, and co-operate with the powers 
beyond in leading the people out of the devilish bond- 
age of ignorance and superstition, we most earnestly 
pray. 



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